Downtown Kalamazoo Analysis

1. Downtown Kalamazoo's business area is a relatively nice business district. The building design is clean and modern, and the overall atmosphere is pleasant. The streets are clean and the traffic is low, and there is a nice mix of retail stores- especially places to eat and get coffee or drinks. The area is well designed and there are nice benches and plants on the streets.
2. 1) Get rid of vacant storefronts
2) Up the security and police presence
3) Make everything more car accessible

3. "The shade trees and planter boxes? Lovely, he says, but they block shoppers' view of shop windows and signs. Those handsome groupings of benches and tables? They seem inviting until Gibbs points out that they often attract teenagers and other loiterers, who scare off shoppers. The elegant Victorian streetlamps, the expensive trash cans, and the distinctive granite paving stones--"so beautiful that people will stare at them as they walk by the storefronts," Gibbs says--are little more than money down the drain. Their costs must be amortized over many years, but long before they have been paid off (and before the town can afford to replace them) they will be old-fashioned, marking the entire street as out of date and out of step."
I disagree with this evaluation of downtown aesthetics. I find all these things attractive, and if done well, not dating or uninviting at all. I like the brick streets on Kalamazoo's pedestrian mall, and I also like the benches, planters, and tables. I think they add to the appeal and make it a nice place to go.

P.S. Sorry this is so late, I lost my blogger password when my firefox shut down- just retrieved it today!

What Main Street Can Learn from the Mall

1. Robert Gibbs uses several criterion to evaluate a Main Street, such as:

• placement of benches, trashcans, and trees
• cleanliness of the area
• pavement material
• security and lighting
• parking and traffic flow
• location of specific retailer types (restaurants not facing westward etc.)
• type of retailers
• the left turn rule

2. No, personally I don't think that main street should become a mall. While I understand and appreciate Robert Gibbs' arguments and think that he presents a valid point when it comes to the economics and success of a shopping area, I think he loses the point of what a main street really is- it is the heart of a city, not a center for capitalism worship.
3. I think that the best checklist points for a main street would be cleanliness, parking, natural beauty/aesthetics, and retailer types and variation. I think that ultimately the most important thing should be the feeling and ambiance of a main street and how well it relates to the city and holds true to its history.

Retail Analysis

1. What store did you observe? Who do they market to?
I observed the Talbots store in the Briarwood mall in Ann Arbor, MI. Talbots markets to the middle aged to older female who is middle to upper middle class with a "classic" sense of style.
2. Briefly describe the following
a. appearance of store entrance (from outside)
The front of Talbots is a small, whiteish facade that has simple, clean lines that are semi-modern but still have an air of the classic english. There were two large red front doors with brass handles (opened), a red awning, warm lights, the talbots logo over top, and a large window display on the right side. It had a very residential feel.
b. sounds (inside the store)
The store was quiet, customers were silent or spoke quietly, and salespeople interacted minimally. Motown music was piped throughout the store, but at a low volume. c. how the merchandise is displayed
The merchandise was displayed with the newest items in the front. The window mannequins wore the new "fall look", and the left and right side wall displays had new clothing hanging up. There were also floor racks on each side, with a table in the middle with folded clothing on it. The clothing in the middle of the store was older, with sale items in the middle/back left side. Accessories were in the middle of the store, and Petites were in the very back, displayed similarly to the regular clothing up front.
d. floors
The floors were a light maple colored faux-parquet hardwood.
e. signs
There was minimal signage; only signs indicating sales and specials and the petites section. There were also signs explaining some of the new items, e.g. "courderoy", and "peacoats".
f. cashier area
The cashier area was very open, and in the middle of the store against the wall of the right side. It consisted of a single counter with two cash register/checkout areas. The counter was low, about mid-waist hieght, and the same light maple color of the floors. It had a glass top.
3. What image does this business try to project? Give specific examples of design elements that reflect this image.
Talbots tried to project the image of the classic yet stylish educated, upper-middle class woman. It tries to portray a sense of an easier time with cozy charm and traditional sensibilities.It did so by making the store feel like a classic English home, with wood floors, light colored walls, wainscoting, and pictures of attractive middle-aged women in nice outdoor settings and English countryside paintings on the walls.
4. How did customers interact with various elements of the store's design?
Customers did not interact much with elements of the store. They mostly moved around quietly, occasionally touching a piece of clothing or picking one up. Mirrors were generally avoided, and I saw no one go into the fitting rooms.
Several of the armchairs in the front of the store were utilized by husbands or male shopping partners who had no interest in exploring Talbots.
5. What did you find interesting about the design of this store?
I found the whole concept of the Talbots store design interesting. I think it is trying to portray an old-world, bougeoisie, anglo-philic image to a clientele who is either uninterested or unaware, and the juxtapositon of the cliente with the stores ideals is facsinating.

Science of Shopping

1. I think the most important point of this article are that people are highly influenced by store organization subliminally, and that there is an exacting science behind the way people shop.
2. Personally, I feel that while I am somewhat influenced by a stores design, I am more influenced by prior knowledge I have about a brand or what I perceive the product to be rather than by the actual, physical storefront.
3. I would analyze:
Store size
Store proportions
Product types
Materials/decorations
Product location
etc.

Packaging

1. Packaging is extremely important when it comes to marketing a product. It is the first thing people see, and it usually the first thing associated with a specific product. I think it can make or break a product.
Recently I was looking at new headphones to buy, and I decided not to buy them based on the packaging. I had researched them online and thought they would be perfect, but mediocre packaging swayed my opinion in the end.
2. I think that apple product packaging is iconic. It is simple, clean, and evocative, and it is easily recognized by people everywhere.
3. Usability issues like practicality, durability, ability to convey a message, and cost of production exist for packaging.
Good packaging from a usability perspective- sigg water bottles
Bad packaging from a usability perspective- computer cables in thick plastic packages etc.

1. This reading relates to the concept of user-focused design that we have discussed because it is all about website usability and what makes a good website. Flanders states that a good website is one that is easy to use and gets the message across quickly and efficiently. It should look good too, but mostly the purpose is for everything on the site to be clear.
2. I felt like the most important point was point number 2. If someone can't even figure out what your website is about, then it serves absolutely no purpose and no one will be able to use it unless they somehow have prior knowledge.
3. Visually appealing
Good mapping
Easy to use/simple design
Natural linking

1. I think that one of the main points Schiff is trying to make is that innovation is good, even though resultant outcomes are not always what was initially intended. Wikipedia is innovative, and while there is a large room for error, it ultimately has replaced Britannica for a whole generation of people.
2. "A twenty-four-year-old University of Toronto graduate is the site’s premier contributor. Since composing his first piece, on the Panama Canal, in 2001, he has written or edited more than seventy-two thousand articles. “Wikipediholism” and “editcountitis” are well defined on the site; both link to an article on obsessive-compulsive disorder. (There is a Britannica entry for O.C.D., but no version of it has included Felix Unger’s name in the third sentence, a comprehensive survey of “OCD in literature and film,” or a list of celebrity O.C.D. sufferers, which unites, surely for the first time in history, Florence Nightingale with Joey Ramone.)"
Here the author uses good supporting detail. She follows up her point about wikipediholism with a detailed reference to the comprehensive linking within wikipedia and how wikipediholism links to a comprehensive page on OCD. I think this is effective because it shows the interconnectivity of wikipedia and how it outshines Britannica.
3. From a design perspective, there is a huge difference between Wikipedia- an online encyclopdiea, and Britannica- a serier of large books (there is of course the online version). Wikipedia appeals to a more fast-paced, younger, more tech savy group that likes instant gratification, where Britannica is more time consuming and appeals to an older generation that relies on books for the most reliable knowledge. Wiki is more behavioral/functional, but Britannica is more visceral.