1. Never put a clothing store by a restaurant because the smells from the food make people not want to buy cloths. Don't put clothing stores on the north side of the street and restaurants on the west side. When the sun goes down and people can see it while eating it makes them want to eat less. Make sure that the ground is clean and there are not too many benches so people do not loiter. You should not have to turn left to get into your mall. That is important because people stopping from work will not want to wait to get into your store.
2. No I do not think Main Street should be a mall. While it seems like a good idea coming from an economic stand point that is not what Main Street is all about. I think it is important for a downtown to make money but i do not think that it should change the way it looks or feels. A downtown in my opinion is big buildings with little shops that are specific to that area, not big chain stores.
3. My own check list would be very similar to Gibbs. I think the most important thing is that Main Street maintains its history and feel of the city. Main Street should be very clean and have a nice variety of local stores. There should be ease of parking and have some seating but not too much.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Retail Analysis
1. The store I went to was Abercrombie and Fitch. The store markets to men and women ages 15 to 35.
2. A. When I first looked outside the store I noticed how they had shutters on the outside instead of windows. When I tried to look in the store there was a wall with a big picture of a guy with his shirt off.
B. The store had loud electronic music playing. By the time i was ready to leave the store my ears hurt.
C. The merchandise was displayed on tables and hanging up on racks. I noticed that the cloths were folded different then normal and it caught me off guard.
D. The floors were black wood floors in the front and back of the store. In the middle of the store by the dressing room the floor was concrete. It was good they differentiated the two parts and I know where the dressing rooms were.
E. There were not many signs in the store. The only things that were on the walls were models in bathing suits. They all looked like they were having so much fun.
F. There were three different cashier areas. They had one in the back of the men's side, one in the back of the women's side, and one in the middle of the store.
3. This store tries to present a hip and young style. They represent this by having good looking people work there, their music is modern and hip making younger people like it, and the ads with people having their shirts off made them hip and young.
4. The customers interacted with the with the store well. The dim lights forced the people to get close to the cloths. When people got close they picked up the cloths and then put them back down.
5. The design of the store worked great. The decompression zone at the beginning of the store made it so you would adjust before you got to the store. The dim lights and loud music make it hard to focus on what you are looking at and buying. The pictures on the wall make it look like if you wear their cloths then you will have fun and looking good in them like posters.
2. A. When I first looked outside the store I noticed how they had shutters on the outside instead of windows. When I tried to look in the store there was a wall with a big picture of a guy with his shirt off.
B. The store had loud electronic music playing. By the time i was ready to leave the store my ears hurt.
C. The merchandise was displayed on tables and hanging up on racks. I noticed that the cloths were folded different then normal and it caught me off guard.
D. The floors were black wood floors in the front and back of the store. In the middle of the store by the dressing room the floor was concrete. It was good they differentiated the two parts and I know where the dressing rooms were.
E. There were not many signs in the store. The only things that were on the walls were models in bathing suits. They all looked like they were having so much fun.
F. There were three different cashier areas. They had one in the back of the men's side, one in the back of the women's side, and one in the middle of the store.
3. This store tries to present a hip and young style. They represent this by having good looking people work there, their music is modern and hip making younger people like it, and the ads with people having their shirts off made them hip and young.
4. The customers interacted with the with the store well. The dim lights forced the people to get close to the cloths. When people got close they picked up the cloths and then put them back down.
5. The design of the store worked great. The decompression zone at the beginning of the store made it so you would adjust before you got to the store. The dim lights and loud music make it hard to focus on what you are looking at and buying. The pictures on the wall make it look like if you wear their cloths then you will have fun and looking good in them like posters.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
The Science of Shopping
1. I think there are a couple of main points. The first main point is how different stores use different sore fronts to attract different customers. I thought it was very interesting to see how the different stores wanted to convey themselves. The way the Polo Mansion was like an English club and the Klein store was like an art gallery. Another interesting point of the article is how the stores should realize who their customers are. If there customers are mostly males then they should put everything together and stuff that matches, the same way that stores do it for children. If the store will have both male and females they should have the stuff for men first because most men will not want to walk through the women's section. If the store if just for women you should spread everything out so they have to circle the store to find everything they need.
2. I think I have been influenced by a store design. If I am in the mall and I have the choice between a store that does not have any music playing and a design that does not appeal to me compared to a store with music playing and a place that looks cool, almost one hundred percent of the time I will choose the store with the music playing. I think that is just good design trying to pull the customer in.
3. Is it gender appropriate?
Does it draw the customer in?
How much time is spend in store?
Good lay out?
2. I think I have been influenced by a store design. If I am in the mall and I have the choice between a store that does not have any music playing and a design that does not appeal to me compared to a store with music playing and a place that looks cool, almost one hundred percent of the time I will choose the store with the music playing. I think that is just good design trying to pull the customer in.
3. Is it gender appropriate?
Does it draw the customer in?
How much time is spend in store?
Good lay out?
Monday, October 20, 2008
Iconic
1. Packaging is very important to products even if we say it is not. If we have a favorite kind of product that we use and one day we go to the store what are we to do. The article says that we will most likely choose the one with the best packaging and i agree. Packaging influenced my decision on valentines day. I was looking for chocolates for my girlfriend and I had no clue what to get her. I was walking up and down the isle trying to find the best one and then I saw one that caught my eye. I was not sure if it had the best chocolate in it but when I saw that Dove container I knew that I should get that one.
2. A product that has very iconic packaging is Wheaties cereal. Everyone knows a Wheaties box even if it changes every couple of months. Its orange box with the athlete on it is very recognizable.
3. I have a little sister who is six years old. On Christmas it is her favorite time of the year but when it comes to all the toys she gets, she brings them to me to open. I have seen a lot of bad packaging in children toys. When you look at them from the outside they look nice and easy to get to but when you open them up it is a different story. There are twist ties and all sorts of other things that make it very difficult to open to get the product that you want. Anything in hard plastic has bad packaging. With the plastic it is nice to see the product you are buying but they are very difficult to get into. When I am opening them I have to pull out the scissors and even with the scissors they are difficult to open.
2. A product that has very iconic packaging is Wheaties cereal. Everyone knows a Wheaties box even if it changes every couple of months. Its orange box with the athlete on it is very recognizable.
3. I have a little sister who is six years old. On Christmas it is her favorite time of the year but when it comes to all the toys she gets, she brings them to me to open. I have seen a lot of bad packaging in children toys. When you look at them from the outside they look nice and easy to get to but when you open them up it is a different story. There are twist ties and all sorts of other things that make it very difficult to open to get the product that you want. Anything in hard plastic has bad packaging. With the plastic it is nice to see the product you are buying but they are very difficult to get into. When I am opening them I have to pull out the scissors and even with the scissors they are difficult to open.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Biggest mistake in Web Design 1995-2015
1. Making a website is all about user-focused design. As the article shows, different websites are bad because they are not very user friendly. When someone goes to your website they do not care how it looks but they do care about getting information, making a donation, getting entertained, or being part of a community. Flanders says that the web designers misuse or over use things that can make your website better such as JavaScript, flash and text boxes.
2. I think that all of his points are important but one comes to mind in particular. I think that a person should be able to figure out what your website is all about in 4 seconds or less. If i am going to a website to find information I want to be able to figure it out quickly or else I will goto another site that has a better design and that shows the information off easier. Another important part of this article is when Flanders talks about heroin content. I think that is very important to get people not only goto your website once but keeping going to your website time and time again. Those are the two most important points in my opinion.
3. There are many important design factors for a webpage. It is important to have good things to say on your website becasue you want people to keep coming back. Another important thing to have is to be very user friendly, if it is hard to navigate you will lose people who could possible donate to your site. You need to be able to figue out what the website is all about at the first glance.
2. I think that all of his points are important but one comes to mind in particular. I think that a person should be able to figure out what your website is all about in 4 seconds or less. If i am going to a website to find information I want to be able to figure it out quickly or else I will goto another site that has a better design and that shows the information off easier. Another important part of this article is when Flanders talks about heroin content. I think that is very important to get people not only goto your website once but keeping going to your website time and time again. Those are the two most important points in my opinion.
3. There are many important design factors for a webpage. It is important to have good things to say on your website becasue you want people to keep coming back. Another important thing to have is to be very user friendly, if it is hard to navigate you will lose people who could possible donate to your site. You need to be able to figue out what the website is all about at the first glance.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Know it All
1. I think that the author had many points in this article. The first point I feel that the author was trying to give the pros and cons of Wikipedia. Another point was how he compared Wikipedia to Britannica's Encyclopedia. Wikipedia gives people the opportunity to edit everything and anyone can add topics. Wikipedia lets people add their own topics so that means that there is way more entries than a normal encyclopedia.
2. "It is also perfectly configured to be current: there are detailed entries for each of the twelve finalists on this season’s “American Idol,” and the article on the “2006 Israel-Lebanon Conflict” has been edited more than four thousand times since it was created, on July 12th, six hours after Hezbollah militants ignited the hostilities by kidnapping two Israeli soldiers. Wikipedia, which was launched in 2001, is now the seventeenth-most-popular site on the Internet, generating more traffic daily than MSNBC.com and the online versions of the Times and the Wall Street Journal combined. The number of visitors has been doubling every four months; the site receives as many as fourteen thousand hits per second. Wikipedia functions as a filter for vast amounts of information online, and it could be said that Google owes the site for tidying up the neighborhood. But the search engine is amply repaying its debt: because Wikipedia pages contain so many links to other entries on the site, and are so frequently updated, they enjoy an enviably high page rank."
I think that this is a very good example of credible writing. The writing gives a lot of of details. I never realized how often the site was actually visited. When the author said that Wikipedia receives more hits daily than MSNBC.com, the online version of the Times and the Wall Street Journal combined was shocking. Another good line in the quote was that the site receives as many as fourteen thousand hits per second was amazing. That is a huge number of people to visit every second.
3. From a visceral point of view i would have to give Wikipedia the edge off the bat right from the starting page. When i see the start page from Wikipedia that has the globe with all of the different languages. From the behavioral aspect they are both effective. If you are looking for a really abstract fact you are better off looking at Wikipedia but if you are looking for the common everyday topic you might be better off using Britannica. The reflective design has to goto Wikipedia. Everyone know the website and has heard of it so that makes it cool. I had never heard of Britannica before this article so i dont really think that it is that sweet.
2. "It is also perfectly configured to be current: there are detailed entries for each of the twelve finalists on this season’s “American Idol,” and the article on the “2006 Israel-Lebanon Conflict” has been edited more than four thousand times since it was created, on July 12th, six hours after Hezbollah militants ignited the hostilities by kidnapping two Israeli soldiers. Wikipedia, which was launched in 2001, is now the seventeenth-most-popular site on the Internet, generating more traffic daily than MSNBC.com and the online versions of the Times and the Wall Street Journal combined. The number of visitors has been doubling every four months; the site receives as many as fourteen thousand hits per second. Wikipedia functions as a filter for vast amounts of information online, and it could be said that Google owes the site for tidying up the neighborhood. But the search engine is amply repaying its debt: because Wikipedia pages contain so many links to other entries on the site, and are so frequently updated, they enjoy an enviably high page rank."
I think that this is a very good example of credible writing. The writing gives a lot of of details. I never realized how often the site was actually visited. When the author said that Wikipedia receives more hits daily than MSNBC.com, the online version of the Times and the Wall Street Journal combined was shocking. Another good line in the quote was that the site receives as many as fourteen thousand hits per second was amazing. That is a huge number of people to visit every second.
3. From a visceral point of view i would have to give Wikipedia the edge off the bat right from the starting page. When i see the start page from Wikipedia that has the globe with all of the different languages. From the behavioral aspect they are both effective. If you are looking for a really abstract fact you are better off looking at Wikipedia but if you are looking for the common everyday topic you might be better off using Britannica. The reflective design has to goto Wikipedia. Everyone know the website and has heard of it so that makes it cool. I had never heard of Britannica before this article so i dont really think that it is that sweet.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
simplicity/complexity
1. I think that simplicity and complexity contribute to the three different design types. I think that with Behavioral Design, the product should be very simple because that is what Behavioral design is all about. Behavioral is all about how well the product works and not as much about what the product looks like. With Visceral Design it is more likely for the product to be more complex because that is what people are more attracted to. I think that with something that is reflective it should look complex but it should be somewhat simple to understand how to use the product.
2. The most recent example that comes to mind is when I purchased my cell phone. I bought the new voyageur, which I do like, but it has many features that I simply do not need or use. First, and the main reason I purchased this phone was because it has a touch screen. This may seem sensible at first, but when I really think about it, it creates more of a problem than making things easier. I have to constantly put on screen-lock as any touch in my pocket does something unwanted. Not only this, but it also is more difficult to use than a regular keyboard. Aside from the touch screen, there are many unused features such as mobile television. I will never want or be able to pay for it. Both of these are good examples of how the features at the beginning seemed “cool” or “new” but came to be more of a problem than anything. - Jeff
When I bought my first cell phone as a freshman in high school I picked out a phone because the complexity of it made it more desirable. The screen of the phone could turn 180 degrees which, it turned out, served no real purpose; however, when I was in the store looking at phones it looked the coolest. - Kenny
I picked these two articles because they both talk about why they bought their cell phones that are complex. They both bought their cell phones based on the way they looked and not on how they actually worked. These products at the time seemed so cool and everyone wanted to get them but as Jeff says they became more of a problem. I think that a lot of people do this sort of thing, buy things before trying them out. I think in our society we go for what is the "new" and "cool" thing before we get a chance to try them out. They both found out the hard way that what looks c00l and complex is not always the best product.
2. The most recent example that comes to mind is when I purchased my cell phone. I bought the new voyageur, which I do like, but it has many features that I simply do not need or use. First, and the main reason I purchased this phone was because it has a touch screen. This may seem sensible at first, but when I really think about it, it creates more of a problem than making things easier. I have to constantly put on screen-lock as any touch in my pocket does something unwanted. Not only this, but it also is more difficult to use than a regular keyboard. Aside from the touch screen, there are many unused features such as mobile television. I will never want or be able to pay for it. Both of these are good examples of how the features at the beginning seemed “cool” or “new” but came to be more of a problem than anything. - Jeff
When I bought my first cell phone as a freshman in high school I picked out a phone because the complexity of it made it more desirable. The screen of the phone could turn 180 degrees which, it turned out, served no real purpose; however, when I was in the store looking at phones it looked the coolest. - Kenny
I picked these two articles because they both talk about why they bought their cell phones that are complex. They both bought their cell phones based on the way they looked and not on how they actually worked. These products at the time seemed so cool and everyone wanted to get them but as Jeff says they became more of a problem. I think that a lot of people do this sort of thing, buy things before trying them out. I think in our society we go for what is the "new" and "cool" thing before we get a chance to try them out. They both found out the hard way that what looks c00l and complex is not always the best product.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
simplicity is highly overrated
1. Sometimes complex things can be more more desirable. One thing that comes to my mind is my friend's microwave. It is a really cool microwave that can do all of these different options. It has a toaster on it plus all of these really fancy buttons. The first time I tried to use the machine I could not even get it started. Once i figured it out i learned how to use the basic toaster and the microwave features but not much else. I still would like to get that microwave but not anytime soon.
2. I think that complexity is justified when you are working with things that can do many different things. It is alright for a printer/copier/scanner/fax machine to be complex because it can do so many different things that it would be quite difficult to make it super simple. I think that simplicity is needed when it is a simple machine. A product that only has one feature does not need to be super complex for it to work and there are ways to make a product like that easy to use.
3. I thought this was interesting because this statement is very true and many people do say that they don't care how they present themselves to others but that is completely false in my opinion. I think that the majority of purchases today are all for a way to present ourselves to others in a positive way. Many people buy certain clothes to gain attention and get recognition as being in style and they try to act better then others because of what they where. People try to make there self-image look better then it really is most of the time. I think designers take this statement and put it into use all of the time and they are successful by making things people want to wear or want to use to make that person feel good about
themselves.
When Evan was talking about the different things that people wear i thought that was very interesting. I had never thought about how much people actually care about what they wear. Most of my friends say that they do not care about what they wear or what they look like but they actually do because no matter how a person dresses they think about what they are going to wear and what message they send out to everyone. that is why i thought it was interesting.
2. I think that complexity is justified when you are working with things that can do many different things. It is alright for a printer/copier/scanner/fax machine to be complex because it can do so many different things that it would be quite difficult to make it super simple. I think that simplicity is needed when it is a simple machine. A product that only has one feature does not need to be super complex for it to work and there are ways to make a product like that easy to use.
3. I thought this was interesting because this statement is very true and many people do say that they don't care how they present themselves to others but that is completely false in my opinion. I think that the majority of purchases today are all for a way to present ourselves to others in a positive way. Many people buy certain clothes to gain attention and get recognition as being in style and they try to act better then others because of what they where. People try to make there self-image look better then it really is most of the time. I think designers take this statement and put it into use all of the time and they are successful by making things people want to wear or want to use to make that person feel good about
themselves.
When Evan was talking about the different things that people wear i thought that was very interesting. I had never thought about how much people actually care about what they wear. Most of my friends say that they do not care about what they wear or what they look like but they actually do because no matter how a person dresses they think about what they are going to wear and what message they send out to everyone. that is why i thought it was interesting.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
emotional design pt. 2
1. "Supermarkets long ago learned to put the most frequently desired items at the rear of the store forcing buyers to pass by isles of tempting impulse purchases. Moreover, related items can be placed nearby." I found this quote very interesting. I have been going to supermarkets every Sunday consistently for almost a year to check out what they had and just to have some fun. When I started to think about the stores that I would go into I did start to realize that. I have always thought it to be normal to have all of the meat, milk and everything you really need in the back of the store and never questioned it. I now know why if I had to go in the store for one thing I would end up leaving with three or four different things that I didn't really need and sometimes I would forget why I even came to the store and would have to go back in to get the thing that I needed.
2. With Norman using Visceral Design, Behavioral Design, and Reflective design I find that it was a great way to break up the different ways that something can be designed. I know that when I see a product I will evaluate it differently depending on which design it is. I think that Norman could have used better names for the three different types of design. For Visceral Design I would have used the name visual design because it is all about the first impression and how people say that they have got to have that. For Behavioral design I would have named it use design because it is all about how you use the product and not about what it looks like it. For reflective design I would have named it self-image design because the product is about what kind of image the product gives you.
3. I think that a designer could decide what design was better for their product by what their product was. If they are trying to make cloths or watches I think that Reflective Design would be the best design but if a person was making professional equipment I think that the Behavioral Design would be the best for that person because the people using them do not care about what they look like but how the product works. I think that some types of products are more visceral, behavioral, or reflective. Depending on the group of people that you are trying to sell the product to should depend on what type of design you use with your product.
2. With Norman using Visceral Design, Behavioral Design, and Reflective design I find that it was a great way to break up the different ways that something can be designed. I know that when I see a product I will evaluate it differently depending on which design it is. I think that Norman could have used better names for the three different types of design. For Visceral Design I would have used the name visual design because it is all about the first impression and how people say that they have got to have that. For Behavioral design I would have named it use design because it is all about how you use the product and not about what it looks like it. For reflective design I would have named it self-image design because the product is about what kind of image the product gives you.
3. I think that a designer could decide what design was better for their product by what their product was. If they are trying to make cloths or watches I think that Reflective Design would be the best design but if a person was making professional equipment I think that the Behavioral Design would be the best for that person because the people using them do not care about what they look like but how the product works. I think that some types of products are more visceral, behavioral, or reflective. Depending on the group of people that you are trying to sell the product to should depend on what type of design you use with your product.
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