Wednesday, October 29, 2008

What Main St. Can Learn From the Mall by Steven Lagerfeld

1. Criteria to evaluate Main St.
  • location of benches: too many loiters and attractive teenagers sitting on the benches will scare off shoppers.
  • location of stores: Are the restaurants next to the retail stores?
  • color of trash cans and newspaper.
  • are shop windows and signs visible?
  • Any distractions such as Victorian street lamps, the expensive trash cans, and granite paving stones.
  • The texture of the side walk. Will they be too hard to clean?
  • Are there enough securities to make the shoppers feel safe.
  • Are the sidewalks grimy?
  • Is there a left turn rule?
  • Is Main st. a vital city street?
  • Does Main St. have variety of stores?
2. I do not think Main Street should be a mall because strip shopping centers, suburban market, big box retailers and power centers are dominating malls. It just proves that the idea of a small town shopping center works. People want change, something that malls cannot offer because their stores all the same chain stores. Besides that, people enjoy a nice walk while shopping for merchandise. However, Main St. should follow the trends and designs that malls used to turn small downtown into a shopping machine.

3. Checklist
  1. left turn rule
  2. location of benches, trees, and trash cans placed in the right places
  3. does the town have at least 200000 sq ft of retail space.
  4. main-main intersection
  5. impression of parking lot
I find the left turn rule and the first impression of parking lot most important.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Retail Analysis

1. I observed a store called Gazelle Sports located in Downtown. They market to young adults interested in brands and middle aged people who play sports.

2.
a. The store entrance is very plain, it had a few banners with name of the store and some clothes hanging outside the glass window.

b. Gazelle Sports play old type of music. Their music is not loud.

c. The merchandises are displayed in hangers, separated by brands.

d. The floors are carpeted in dark gray colors.

e. They have yellow signs of brands of clothing (Nike, North Face, Adidas).

f. In the cashier area, there is a huge yellow sign with quotes about shopping in Gazelle right on top of the counter.

3. The image the business is trying to sports can be fashionable. Their sporting clothes have different colors and styles that you cannot find in another store.

4. Customers found the various elements of the store's design intriguing. People there are very interested in the clothing and the bright signs that label what brand they are.

5. I find interesting that the colors of all the signs are green, and yellow. They try to promote nature and how by playing sports, you will be outside enjoying nature. Also, Gazelle placed all their men clothing in the right because of the invariant right principle. Gazelle did not want to confuse the male customers when the first thing they see is women clothing. The fitting room was located all the way in the back of the left corner. It took a lot of thing to look for it, therefore it manipulates customers to shop around their store longer. All the sports items are located in the back as well.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

The Science of Shopping

1. Key points in this article are manipulation from retail stores by main techniques like invariant right, men and women's differences, typing, and butt brush theory. Stores learn to put important things in the right because people always look right when they enter stores. Retailers also understand that men and women are very different creatures when it comes to shopping. For example, women shop longer or have more patience than men. With this knowledge, men's clothing are always in front so they don't get confused with the wrong sex clothing. Another way stores get people to purchase items are the using the Typing method. Typing is a market research based on questionaires that predict the kind of products people buy. Typing is highly accurate. Stores also design enough space in aisle for women's product because according to the butt brush theory, women are very sensitive back there.

2. I feel I am very influenced by the store's design because I would not walk into a store if the outside if the store looks bad. I judge the store just from looking at the store's design. I am very influenced by store design because I always find myself buying items I don't really need but I end up buying it because of the marketing techniques that used on me.

3. List to analyze retail store
Decompression Zone
Butt Brush Theory
Men and Women's sales location
Right and Left Invariant
Location of the store (not near banks)
Downshift factor
The ratio of products brought for every customer
Image or the message

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Isn't it Iconic? by Stacy King Gordon

1. Packaging is important when consumers buy products depending on their packaging design. When I chose to buy a bottle of shampoo, I was debating between two types of organic shampoos. A brand call Organix had an oval shaped with nice text and colors. The other brand called Giovanni had a slim rectangular shape made of clear plastic material. I decided to choose Organix because the packaging design was more appealing.

2. Animal crackers, Poland Spring, Tropicana Orange Juice, Capri Sun, Kool Aid, and McDonalds Happy Meal are examples of iconic packaging.

3. A usability issue is the durability of the product and the behavioral aspect of the packaging design. An example of good packaging from a usability perspective is the Coca Cola plastic bottle. These bottles can be recapped after opening to drink later. An example of a bad packaging is the Coca Cola cans because once you open it, you have to drink it all at once.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Biggest Mistakes in Web Design By Vincent Flanders

1. The reading relate to the concept of user-focused design that we have discussed in class because every important points Vincent Flanders involves the needs of the website viewers. For instance, Vincent explains that "Nobody cares about you and you web site", people only visit the website because they need information, need to make a donation, need entertainment and need too be part of the community. The concept of user-focused design often lead to bad web site designs or what the author call it, websites that suck. There are too many website designers that misuse flash, graphics, and JavaScript. People put unnecessary applications that make the readers confused and lost. The idea of concept of user focused design is very much similar to Norman's everyday things because the major point is that designers are too focused on themselves and not focused on the common people's needs.

2. There are many points in the article that I found important. For example, the less than four second rule states that it should only take the reader 4 seconds to figure you whole web site layout and how to use it. If they are still trying to figure it out after 4 seconds, then your web site is failure. Another point is having good navigation on the site. Navigation should be simple and easy to be seen and used on the web page. There should not be broken links or no links back to the homepage. The point I felt most important was whether or not the site has heroin content. As Flanders explained, if the site has addicting contents, it does not matter how bad the design is because people will see visit the site.

3. My list of design factors for a webpage would be Content, Visual Attractiveness, and Organization. The website's content serves the whole purpose of the site. It is ham in the hamburger. If the content is not good enough, everything else fails. The visual design or visceral should be important because the first thing that comes to the reader's mind when they enter the site is whether the site looks nice. Finally, the web page should be organized. The navigation keys should be easy to find and easy to access. The site's text can be readed and the background is not too flashy. An organized site allows the reader to figure out how to use the site within 4 seconds.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Know It all by Stacy Schiff

1. The author's main point is to show the origin of Wikipedia from 2001's progress to current time. The author stressed the point that Wikipedia is not a reliable source because it can be edited by a 5 year old.

2. "The how-to entries represent territory that the encyclopedia has not claimed since the eighteenth century. You could cure a toothache or make snowshoes using the original Britannica, of 1768-71. (You could also imbibe a lot of prejudice and superstition. The entry on Women has just six words: "The female of man. See HOMO.") If you look up "coffee preparation" on Wikipedia, you will find you way, via the entry on Espresso, to a piece on types of espresso machines, which you will want to consult before buying."

The evidence Stacy Schiff has provided was very effective. If you typed "women" on Britannica and typing "coffee" preparation on Wikipedia we can see the big difference. Wikipedia provides so much more content than Britannica when searching for keywords.

3. The Wikipedia and Britannica website design is very different from each other. The Wikipedia design has a search word for the whole layout, but Britannica shows only one-fourth of the layout, while the rest of the page is covered with advertisement. Wikipedia is also easy to use because when you type in a keyword in the search bar, Wikipedia lists the matches from most relevant to irrelevant, but Britannica gives you a list of options to choose from. Britannica has had more buttons on the page and advertisement. Wikipedia has history and additional related topic to the search word, unlike Britannica, which only shows a brief definition of the word.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Simplicity vs Complexity

1. Visceral Design, Behavioral Design, and Reflective Design contributes to simplicity/complexity because designers use these designs to help create a simple and complex appeal towards consumers. Designers purposely make their products viscerally more simple to attract consumers. For the behavioral aspect of products, designers create less controls and functions to show simplicity. Finally, designers should have a reflective design, sending a message to the people that the product is very simple.

2. "I know the example of a phone was used often, but this past summer I worked as a temporary office administrator in a small environmental engineering office where I lived. My main responsibility was to answer the phone, and I often had difficulties transferring and holding calls that came in. The worst experience was when I accidentally called someone and thought that they had called me. That led to an awkward exchange...
The design of the phone was too complicated. I could not remember all the different combination of buttons that I needed to transfer, hold, and call out. Like Norman said, there were too many functions."-Hannah

“That’s the design challenge- to discover real needs that even the people who need them cannot yet articulate.”
This statement by Norman fascinates me. Everyday items that we consider essential are at one time not available or considered superfluous. A perfect example is the cell phone. Even when the concept was introduced most consumers did not respond very positively to it. However, now every where you go you can find someone talking on their phone. It just shows how innovative and persistent designers need to be.''-Liz

From reading Hannah and Liz's answers, I discovered that people do not know what they want from designers. Phones with many functions may sound attractive to consumers, but most of the time, consumers cannot describe what they want. Therefore, designers have to be innovative and be able to think about what the people want.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Simplicity is highly overrated by Donald Norman


1. I bought the Iriver clix over iPod because the complexity made it more desirable. The clix had a radio, recorder, video player, text reader, alarm clock, games, pod cast, sound system, and a timer. When I chose the clix, the iPod had less functionality then it did two years ago.

2. Complexity is justified when the features are popular and common. For example, a car is justified to have many controls because when you are driving you want to feel powerful. People expect that cars have radios, a cup holders, automatic systems , and a GPS systems.
Simplicity is most important after the product is purchased because if it is simple, then consumers will not be frustrated and confused when using the product.






3.
"Simplicity is only important in terms of use. If you bring a cellular phone without any features, no one will buy. Nowadays, a camera, music player, and internet is standard for any phone. The complexity is needed, but the ease of use is highly appreciated."-Dion

I find Dion's opinion very interesting because I agree with him. There seem to be a paradox when it comes to purchasing any type of cellular phone. Americans want simplicity but would never purchase a cellphone that does not have complex features.