"What Main Street Can Learn From the Mall"

1.The criteria Robert  Gibbs uses to evaluate a a Main Street are:

• Sidewalks- Are they so beautiful that they draw theshoppers attention to the ground rather than the store front and window diplays? Are they so grimy they oush shoppers away?
• Shade Trees and Planter boxes- Do they block the shopper's view of shop windows and signs?
• Benches/tables/Chairs- Are they placed together in a way that discourages poeple to walk through them?
• Security- Is there a mall security of some sort to ensure a safe enviornment for shoppers?
• Stores-Are the window displays design to get the shoppers full attention?

2.Deciding whether Main Street should or should not become a mall is a hard decision. Based on Gibbs theories about mall, if they decided to make Main Street into a Mall, the building will not only will it lose its uniqueness but it will also change the way Americans view Main Street.It will no longer be the site of the American town.If they decide to keep Main Street exactly like it is now, there will be shoppers who dicsontinue their shopping experience there because they feel it lacks certain ways of a shopping mall(variety of stores, enviornment.etc.)The best place for Main Street is in the middle.There it will be able to have its unique strengths and unique markets while surviving commercially.

3.My criteria to judge a Main Street would be similar to Gibb's criteria. I would judge Main Street based on the condition of the streets and sidewalks, they way the chairs, tables, and benches are spaced, the organization of stores based on functionality, the aspects that assure comfort, and the storefronts. I consider these to be most important elements because when they are not used properly and effectively they can deter a shopper from even entering Main Street.

Wikipedia Article

My wikipedia article is on The Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia. It can be found using the following link:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Contemporary_Art_of_Georgia

Retail Analysis

1. I observed the store Meijer,which is a hypermarket chain in Grand Rapids that markets to the general public.

2. Before walking into Meijer, I noticed the unique design structure of the outside. On opposite ends of  the outside of the building, were grey concrete paneling on the building and between them were glass windows.Above the building was a large translucent wall that gave off natural light to the customers and cashiers at the register.After walking inside, I noticed it was so quiet that I could hear low to minimal noises like shopping carts rolling, scanning noises from the register and could even hear people conversing.The merchandise was displayed under the headings in which they fall.The floor was pattern with blue and light blue tiles, grey and white tiles, and brown and tan tiles. There was blue signs above each isle and blue or reds signs within each isle.The cashier are was very large. They had a self-checkout section and a regular checkout section.

3.Meijer tries to project a consumer centered enviornment through its simple structure.The signs in Meijer, for example, are placed pacifically to help the consumer find its way through the store.Each sign has a legible script and others have images that reflect the products being sold in that area.

4.Customers in Meijer interacted to the store's elements in different ways. Some customers that walked in with a shopping cart, strolled through each isle carefully looking at certain products. The customers that didn't have a shopping cart, came in and brought what they needed and left. Most of the consumers looked and touched the products they were buying and others did so because they were interested.

5.The interesting part about the design of Meijer was the subheadings in each isle. Where I am from, stores only have the big sign in the center of the isle to help guide the consumer and once you find the isle you have to scan the whole isle. In Meijer, I could look down each isle and see in words wher the flour, sugar ,or etc was located.

Egg Container Experiment

The Egg Drop experiment wasn't a quick and easy task for me , considering I didn't have any  experience with egg drop experimnets in previous school years.It took a couple of meetings before Joe and I were able to come up with a design that we could build out of the limiting supplies we owned. When Joe and I first met to discuss the how we were going to design the container, we talked about and wrote down ideas.We decided to use a cardboard box with a small closed container in the middle holding the egg in place and soft material to surround the egg. The idea of the box stayed the same but some components changed. We cut the box down to a smaller size and instead of the closed top container we used a Bigby's coffee cup.

Joe and I took a couple of days to build the design, because we decided to modify the design for a better survivorial rate.After we finish builing the egg container, we decided to decorate the box to make it appealing to the eye.Since we used black tape to piece the box together, we went for a black and orange "K College" theme.

Watching the egg containers fall from the second and third story was really fun, especially when watching the egg container made by my partner and I.Our egg container survived the fall from the second story but did not survive the fall from the third story. I was impressd by the fact that even though our egg cracked from the third fall the design on the outside didnt show any signs that the egg was broken. Our container did open from the impact of the first fall, which could have been a determining factor to why it didnt't last the second fall. Overall, I was pleased with the egg container's success rate but if I could design it all over again, I would add components from  the other groups designs to make our egg container better.

To read my partner Joe Jones blog post  about our Egg Drop experience visit his blog at http://joejones2014.blogspot.com/

The Science of Shopping

1.The article "The Science of Shopping" introduced a variety of important points on the behavior of shoppers in a store.I felt like the most important point was that the markerters and retailers have to conform to the desires of the sellers. The author talked about Paco Underhill, the man behind the consumer study, and how he is hired to place cameras in the stores to study the patterns and signs of the customers. He reports back to his clients with an analysis on the customers behavior to help the client make improvements in sales. Paco's analysis helps the markerters and retailers because it breaks down the the behaviors by gender and age.The breakdown gives the retailers the opportunity to satisfy the need of men and women both young and old.

2. I believe I am greatly influenced and affected by a store's design. I will leave a store If I feel  there is little to no space to manuever. Just like Paco Underhill mentioned in the article, if I was bumped on my backside I would leave the store immediately.Mainly because a brush on the backside is unexpected when shopping that it seems to interrupt my comfort zone.I am  also influenced by a store's lighting. Hollister, for example, has a dim dark lighting throughtout the store. I personally will not buy anything form inside the store because the lighting makes it difficult for me to actually see the clothing. However, because I like the style of clothing Hollister sells, I will instead buy clothing form the online shopping site. I think I am influenced so much by a store's design because I have certain expections for each type of store.

3. To analzye a retail store, I would use the following checklist:

1. Lighting- Does the store has a dim light setting or bright fluoresent lighting?
2.Scent-Does the store have a perfume/cologne fragrance, scented air fresheners, or no scent at all?
3.Space- Is there enough space to manuever? Are the isles narrow or wide?
4.Arrangement- Are the products grouped into sections they are associated with? Can you distinguish each section?

"Isn't it Iconic" "The Power of the Box- Powerful Packaging Design"

1. Packaging is extremely important when marketing a product. Simply because consumers judge a product by its packaging before they decide to buy the product. If a package is attractive, the consumer is going to want to buy the product. Without attractive packaging, they wouldn't want to buy it in order to try it. Just like when I'm in the store shopping, I skim through the isles until I find something that catches my eye. One example is when I went to the grocery store to buy snacks for my dorm. The first isle I walk by catches my eye, it has almost every snack you could think of but the one I just had to buy was the 12 pack of  "CHEEZ-IT". The traditional color scheme of red and white , as mentioned in "Isn't it Iconic" by Stacey King Gordon, is a color combination that tend to catch my eye of most consumers and the picture of the golden orange baked craker immediately made my decision final. I was going to buy it cause I just had to have them.

2. Some products that have iconic packaging are Campbell's Soup, Skittles Candies, Gatorade, Quaker Oatmeal, and Sprite.These products have simple color combinations that have bold but basic writing,they are different which makes them uncomparable to products in the same categories, they contain exceptional products, and the are upgraded and refreshed at the right times.

3. There are a lot of  usability issues that exist for packaging.Packages that are not able to close after you open them are one of the many issues with packaging. Some packages are problematic because they can't be used on the go so you cant travel with them. Others are designed so poorly that they give you problems when you try to do a simply task like opening the product.Also, there are packages that hold cakes or chewy granola bars,  are an issue because they dont provide much protect to the contents inside, making them more likely to getting squished. A particularly good packaged product isCampbell's soup. The design is simple and attractive, the strong material protects the soup inside so there is no damage if dropped and nothing is able to get inside the can, and you are able to store the can anywhere.A particularly bad packaged product is Dominio Sugar. Its package is paper that doesn't support the grainy contents. Even in the store you can see sugar under the shelves and sometimes when you pick it up it has suger seeping through the creases.

"Know it All"

1. In the article "Know it All" the author's main points were to tell that wikipedia became such a sucess with so many users because it foucused on other smaller topics, emphasize that wikipedia is a skeptical source for information because its often tampered with people's opinions and false statements, and explain that even though its articles are edited frequently its still a good source for information.

2.Wikipedia remains a lumpy work in progress. The entries can read as though they had been written by a seventh grader: clarity and concision are lacking; the facts may be sturdy, but the connective tissue is either anemic or absent; and citation is hit or miss. Wattenberg and Viégas, of I.B.M., note that the vast majority of Wikipedia edits consist of deletions and additions rather than of attempts to reorder paragraphs or to shape an entry as a whole, and they believe that Wikipedia’s twenty-five-line editing window deserves some of the blame. It is difficult to craft an article in its entirety when reading it piecemeal, and, given Wikipedians’ obsession with racking up edits, simple fixes often take priority over more complex edits. Wattenberg and Viégas have also identified a “first-mover advantage”: the initial contributor to an article often sets the tone, and that person is rarely a Macaulay or a Johnson. The over-all effect is jittery, the textual equivalent of a film shot with a handheld camera.
This passage from the article illustrates the effective use of supporting detail.The first sentence states that Wikipedia remains a lumpy work in progress. This sentence introduces the topic. The following sentence, The entries can read as though they had been written by a seventh grader: clarity and concision are lacking; the facts may be sturdy, but the connective tissue is either anemic or absent; and citation is hit or miss, explains and supports the idea that Wikipedia remins a work in progress.

3. Wikipedia is designed to be a web based source to find information, Britannica is designed to be a printed in volumes that can also be viewed online. Wikipedia has a search engine that allows you to type in key words to help assist you with looking for a topic.It also gives you a list of articles that relate to the topic. Britannica online encylopedia perfoms this tasks just as similiar but the Britannica printed version has a different search process. You have to look up the broad topic in the index, find the page number,and then look for the actual topic. Wikipedia is also designed to be edited by users and viewers, Britannica is the oppostie It was designed to be viewed only, giving the perception that the information is based on facts than peoples opinions.The above comparison is how I would compare the two encylopedias from a design perspective.The comparison is based what the two encylopedias encompass, on the actual view of encylopedia and the behavioral functions of each.