American Eagle

1. I observed American Eagle and they market to teenagers and young adults.

2.A. Big glass doors with handles in the shape of AE. The glass doors and big glass windows allow you to see many of the items inside and there are big signs for sales too.

B.There is music playing that is a mix of alternative rock or hip hop or other music that appeals to young adults and theres a tv in the back of the store playing the music video.

C. displayed on shelves and hangers with guys clothes on the right and girls clothes on the left.

D. regular wood floors

E. the signs displayed are either big signs in the front window or small ones about discounted clothes within the store

F. the cashier area is in the middle of he wall on the right side of the store, in the middle of the guys section and right by a lot of accessories like bracelets and necklaces

3. the image the store is trying to portray is that its cool and hip and they're trying to appeal to young adults. it is evident that they do this because their salesmen wear their clothes and all the salesmen are young adults.

4.there is a path to get to the back of the store and that is where the sales items are located. so the customers follow the path to the back of the store and see all the other more expensive items on the way to get to the back. having the sales in the back draws customers through the whole store. and the accessories or "impulse" items are located by the register so people are likely to throw in a couple accessories while waiting in line.

5. I thought it was interesting that at the back of the store there are two chairs and a couch. these are probably for the guy to sit and wait and watch the music videos while his girlfriend shops. I noticed only guys sitting on these chairs and didn't happen to notice any girls in those chairs.

As you were reading this article what aspects of the design of a store did you realize actually effect your shopping habits?


Robert: I believe that sales people do have a large impact on if a company will be successful or not but that they have a different effect. The setup is very important to pull customers in. Its a necessary aspect to pay close attention to for a store owner because if you can't pull customers in then your salesmen don't matter. But on the other hand good salesman are very important to keeping customers in the store as well. Both aspects are important for different reasons.

Laura: I don't believe that mapping has a huge impact on shoppers but it can be used in manipulative was. If a consumer knows what they want then you will try and find it. They'll ask some employee and find a way to get that product. But store owners can be manipulative and place certain products next to other complimentary products and try to trick people into buying other things.

Packaging

As well as attracting attention to the product, packaging's other main feature is to protect the product itself. Maintaining the integrity and quality of the product is just as important as drawing the consumer in with a pretty design. Packaging first purpose is to protect the product from the elements before it reaches the consumer's hands. It protects it from breaking, cracking, losing freshness and many other things of that nature. If a product has any of those defects then there is no way i'm going to wast my money on it and neither is anyone else. A pretty package can lure in customers but if they get lured in only to find a faulty or damaged product then that will push them away with equal force in the opposite direction.

The articles suggest we need to change alot about how we package our goods. The waste is growing and there needs to be some kind of change. Companies aren't going to take anything away from their packaging that draws in customers or helps maintain the integrity of their product but they need to get rid of any excess and minimize the packaging to only what is necessary. That is an option or make packaging reusable or more biodegradable. The idea of reusable grocery bags and the elimination of plastic grocery bags is a great start because those contribute a lot to the current waste problem. But we need to find a way to make packing for other good more environmentally friendly as well.

Packages

1. I think packaging is more important for new products than old products that have been around for a while. It's important to new products because if someone is looking to try something new then the only thing they really can judge the product on is packaging. If a product has a really distinctive packaging design then it can draw in new consumers more easily. Products that have been around for a while keep their consumers by maintaining the quality of their product, not maintaining a cool look. But older products do need to keep their designs looking good though to keep consumers from trying something else. Whenever I look to buy any new product the packaging plays a big role because if I can't try the product out then I have nothing else but that to base its quality on. I can't think of any specific examples at the moment but usually every time I buy a new product that I haven't used before then the packaging plays an important role in my decision.

2. Red Bull, snickers, iPod, Marlboro, Jones soda

3. Packages that are thick in plastic and are basically impossible to open without a tool box have bad usability. Difficulty to open the package relates to the usability of packaging. I bought headphones the other day and it was very hard to open the package and when I did the packaging was in a million pieces. But usability of packaging really doesn't have much effect on me. If the product is good enough then as long as eventually I get it open then thats good enough for me.

Webpages That Suck

1. This article relates to user-focused design because it talks about designing the website for the user, not the designer. That is a concept that we have discussed often in class about how products need to be designed for the users and not the designers who already know how to use the product. The website, like any other product, needs to be designed so the user will be able to easily operate it and the mistake that is often made is that designers will design products and sites that are easy for them to use but the only reason its easy for them to use is because they designed it. And designers often forget that.

2. Using design elements that get in the way of the users experience would be a big mistake and an important point that is made in this article. Navigational failure is also a very important point. A website will become utterly useless if no one knows how to navigate it (i.e. www.kzoo.edu)

3.a.navigation
b.usability
c. intrigue (aesthetics)
d.interactive
e.informative

good design

A product of mine that I think is designed fairly well is my new microwave (the old one was horrendous). The many different functions are all right on the front display and the numbers are clearly labeled as well. It has a popcorn feature that senses how long it will take to cook each bag and will vary the cook time based on the popping rate. You can also cook various types of meats and it has different settings for each type. This design is much better that what I have been used to because my old microwave had very weak power and had a knob that you would turn to a time setting and that was the only feature. It was horrible.

The fact that Naufals blog was about a toy and not something we usually talk about in class attracted me to it. It was interesting to read about designs of things that aren't designed for the people in our class too.

Naufals page shows many different design flaws which was interesting and and related to the class because the page also discussed different ways to fix them as well.

Naufal's Blog

The thing that attracted me to Spencer's blog was that it was about computer design comparisons and the design of computers really interests me. Also, because it was about comparing the deisngs of two different operating systems i thought that was pretty cool.

Spencers site is interesting because it contains many different opinions about the topic and represents all angle. It is also relevant to the class because the design of different operating systems is something that we have often discussed in our class.

Spencer's Blog