Ergonomic Ablution Station Design

Abstract

Ablution is an important aspect in the everyday lives of Muslims. It is a required process to attain purity in order to perform necessary prayers. As many prayers occur during the day, when people are at work, there was a need to create proper ablution stations. There are four ablution stations that are the most popular choice in most mosques. The current study is motivated by the few studies that examine the ergonomic aspects of ablution stations, one of which is Mokhtar (2005) which looks at these four stations. This study is also motivated by the fact that most studies done around the topic are not recent, and thus exclude modern methods of design. These stations are yet to be studied using proper ergonomic tools and techniques. 40 Muslim participants, aged between 18 and 75, were asked to fill a survey examining the selected ablution designs in light of their experiences. The questions focused on comfort level, wetness level, and overall thoughts about the designs. The results show that out of the existing designs, design A was seen as the most comfortable. Results also show that there is a significance between height, weight, and gender and the perceived comfort level per design, while there was no significance when it comes to the age of participants. Overall, the participants preferred the seated design and would rather use the two new designs that also have a seat. Additionally, another 5 Muslim participants, men only, were asked to use selected ablution stations at the mosque and fill an LMD scale questionnaire about its comfort. RULA was used to score the designs based on the participants' postures while performing ablution on one of the four station designs in question. Design A had the lowest RULA score amongst the four designs. Designs A and C were subjectively the most comfortable design for participant's 5 and 4. The results are situated in the ergonomics framework for analysis and are intended to be a steppingstone for future studies to build upon.