The Design of Spaces

1. I think that Whyte's main point was to show how to design spaces better. Whyte talks about some of the same things we talk about in class such as the design of a chair, height, how close the seats are together, and wither or not it is movable. Another thing Whyte talks about is how close the space is to the street and how it affects it.

2. Urban and Consumer products are designed to be similar and different. Both are made with the user in mind but they are made for different reasons. Urban spaces are made to be very behavioral and less visceral and reflective. While Urban spaces are behavioral, consumer products are made more viscerally and reflectively then behavioral.

3.

• Your park should be at least 10% seating
• Location, location, location
• Is it enclosed or open?
• Is it raised or lowered no more than 3 feet?
• Are there benches and if so how many?
• Can the Chairs move?
• Is the space big enough?
• How does it flow with the street?
  

Downtown Kalamazoo

1. Downtown Kalamazoo is very different from what I expected it to look like. There are lots of benches, trees, and the ground is a beautiful brick. I liked how there were a different mix of stores and all of the stores have open glass windows so they are very inviting. I noticed that it seemed like it went store then restaurant for almost the whole way down the street. That was different to me because I am not use to seeing that many restaurants downtown.

2. For the downtown I can give a few recommendations to improve it. The first thing that they should do is to scrape the gum off of the ground because I noticed it without looking for it. Another thing I would do would be to take out some of the benches and trees. Even though they look pretty they are distracting to me. The last change I would make would be to have easier parking. The parking looked difficult and it seemed like it was tough to find a spot.

3. Fear of crime is one of the things that keep them away, and grimy sidewalks are one of many signs that hint at disorder, in Gibbs's view. Standing outside the gym at the corner of Clematis and Dixie Highway, he discourses at length on an untidy collection of benches, tables, and chairs outside a café across the highway. This is civic space only in theory. In fact it poses a threat to civic existence. "Those benches make it look like this is a very difficult place to walk," he says, putting himself in the shoes of the average (that is, female) shopper. "You've got to squeeze between those benches. And if a teenager or some street person happens to be there, you would have to touch them, because you're so close together. That is like a sign saying DON'T ENTER."

This article relates to Kalamazoo's downtown in different ways. Kalamazoo's downtown is what this article says what not to do. Even though Gibbs says that this is a big don't enter for the stores it works for Kalamazoo. Kalamazoo has lots of benches, tables, and chairs but it seemed like the people who were shopping were only using them for a little while but they could still look at the different stores. When I sat down to write something down my eyes kept looking around and my eyes stayed busy. According to Gibbs Kalamazoo does things all wrong but they pull it off well

What Main Street Can Learn from the Mall

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.