Steven Lagerfeld

List the criteria Robert Gibbs uses to evaluate a Main Street

1. Gibbs evaluates Main Street by observing the mall management and looking at the generators (like a gym). Another important aspect of Main Street is the appeal to local entrepreneurs that rent spaces (known as incubators). These three aspects are all considered to be in Main Street's favor. When Gibbs evaluated Main Street, he examined the placement of trees, planter boxes, and benches. He explained that these items either cover signs or they instigate loitering. Things like expensive streetlamps, trash cans, and fancy stone for the street/walkway are nothing more than money wasters, since the items simply become dilapidated over time which will look out of date. Instead, Gibb says that focus should be more on up keep, rather than fanciness. Potential customers are drawn to cleanliness in the civic realm. The realm should also be free of crime, which will be promote by visible security as to reassure the safety to customers.
When Gibb evaluates store fronts he focuses on size and signs. He has observed that small window displays typically display more expensive items whereas bigger window displays display less expensive items. In addition, Gibb observed that a store is more appealing to potential customers if the signs indicate well-known brand names. Visible brand names give a store credentials. The length of a vista is also important, as it should draw the customer to the merchandise. Additionally, he discusses the straight streets are the primarily handicap to most shopping centers because it prohibits customers from viewing the store fronts a majority of the time. Even the placement of restaurants in relation to clothing stores is important. If a restaurant is placed too close in proximity to a clothing store, it is repels customers  because they find the smell unappealing.



Think critically of Gibbs’ argument.  Do you think “Main Street” should be a mall?

2. The intention of Main Street is important because changing it into a mall will give it a completely new feel. Shopping malls are typically goal oriented towards visiting numerous stores for large amounts of shopping. I feel that Main Street should remain what it is currently because it will lose its relaxed and casual feel of community and retail diversity.


Make your own checklist to judge a Main Street.  What things do you think are important?


3. My judgement of Main Street would be based on cleanliness and order. I think including park benches in a shopping area is important because I read in an article from class that stores we actually more successful because they had numerous park benches. I would also judge the appearance on a store's window displays and my appeal to enter a store based on them. I think simple, yet detailed window displays are important. If too much is in a window display, the store gives off the feeling that it is cluttered and disorderly.

Wikipedia Page

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jivamukti_Yoga

Retail Analysis

1. I observed Gap, Inc -- a popular clothing and accessory retail store that targets both men and women, including children. This brand usually appeals to the crowd ranging from 16 years to early 30s, marketing to parent's as well.
2. The entrance to Gap is surrounded by two, large, floor to ceiling glass windows. Looking through the windows, the store looks clean, well-lit, and simple.
Every customer is welcomed by subtle background music, ranging from alternative rock to upbeat faster paced music. The store does not play a specific type of music, instead the store tends to play the most current music popular among the younger crowd.
The first main display is located front and center, featuring "The Most Wanted; New + Now" The women's section is located on the right side of the store and the men's section is located on the right side of the store. Clothing is dispersed throughout either side. Jeans are either laid out on the table/counters or stack against the wall. Some sweaters are nicely folded on circular tables, but blouses and jackets are hung up on the rack.
Pine colored wood flooring runs through the whole store, even in the changing rooms.
Various sign emphasize gap's jean selection. One sign reads '1969' printed in large font. Another sign at the entrance read 'Super Tuesday' advertising the gap member card which offered a discount on Tuesdays.
The cashier area is located at the end of the store.
3. Gap, Inc. hopes to project a shopiscated, yet playful image. Their clothing is clean-cut, simple, and stylish. Their image is apparant to me because of the pictures and the design of the store. The models are youthful. Throughout the store three colors are most common: the color of pine wood, white, black, and silver (to mimic the appearance of metal). The simplicity of the store's set up is reflected in the image and the clothing.
4. Customers most commonly looked at the items that were hung up first. Other customers tended to direct their attention to the sales rack. While I was observing the store not many customers were present.
5. The store's design was interesting because it lacked organization. Knit tops were mingled with t-shirts and pants. I observed that there was too much to focus on in one area of the store. It was difficult to direct my attention toward one clothing piece to determine if I really liked it because I was easily distracted by another clothing piece.

Egg Project

Designing, building, and testing our egg container.

Christina and I had no idea how to design, or build our egg container. Students who have done this type of project before gave us insight, as well as input along the way. Christina figured that layering smaller containers inside of bigger containers to protect the egg more. In the end we only used two containers, rather than three or more.
We began by cutting a water jug in half, using the bottom half as our base. Then we placed cotton balls on the bottom and layered it with a piece of cardboard. Christina created our tiny egg container by cutting two water bottles in have, and then layer them inside one another with the egg. The egg container was taped shut so that it would hold together. In the mean time, I used tissue paper, more cotton balls, and paper towel to create more padding so that the egg container would be nestled inside of the jug and padding.
Then we had the wonderful idea to create a parachute. We poked two holes into the jug, and double bagged two plastic bags (placing one inside of the other) taping the handles together. We had no way of connecting the bag to the jug until we thought of using hair ties. We attached the bag to the jug, but Christina pointed out that the parachute covered to much of the jug. I picked up a garbage from my room, which we ended up using as our parachute. The corners of the garbage bag were taped and then whole punched. Taping the corners with masking tape prevented the bag from ripping. We connected the hair ties with a rolled up piece of tape at each end. The tape was tied to the bag and then to the jug in four locations.
We tested the container about five times without the egg in it. After several trail runs, we were happy with the results and concluded by placing the egg into our padded container and taping a final piece of cardboard over the top of it.
Testing the egg during class was really successful. The parachute worked great! The container landed nicely the first and second time it was dropped. I was a little nervous about our parachute, at first, because it was a little windy outside.

http://christina2014.blogspot.com/

"The Science of Shopping" Malcolm Gladwell

1. Gladwell addresses the idea that human behavior in retail can be analyzed in several ways and be used as the seller's advantage. Therefore, the design of a retail store matters just as much as the design of the product it is selling. Anyalsizing the behavior of what people want to shop for is necessary information to set up a store accordingly. If the retail store wants to sell their product they will do so in any way possible. For example, the Polo Ralph Lauren is set up to mimic a men's club creating the kind of atmosphere that the brand has interest in conveying to appeal to certain customers.
2. I am influenced by a store's design in so much as I am more willing and interested in entering a store if it is organized, simple, but also appeals to my taste. A store's design, on the other hand, does not influence whether I to buy or not to buy.
3. My checklist would include the following:

• Amount of clutter
• Simplicity
• Organization 
• Variety
• Color
• Spaciousness 
• Atmosphere (is it to my liking)  
• Employees politeness, friendliness and helpfulness. 

Packaging Design "Isn't it iconic" & "The Power of The Box"

1. A product's packaging is extremely important in marketing. A consumer receives his/her first impression of  a product through its packaging; considering that packaging is the shape, color, font, graphics and material of any given product used to protect the contents. A consumer new to a product may only have other people's reviews to judge a product and his/her own personal response when viewing a product's packaging. From this first impression, the consumer is  either drawn to the product, feels indifferent, or is appalled by it.

Packaging has influenced my decision when purchasing teas. I like the taste of mostly every tea, so I choose which tea I will buy based on the packaging. If I am attracted to the package's appearance  I am more likely to buy it.

2. The signature Tiffany's box is a product that I would consider to have iconic packaging. No matter the product purchased from Tiffany & Co., it always comes in a small Tiffany blue colored box, with a neatly tied bow wrapped around it. The company's packaging, especially through it's branding color separates Tiffany's from other jewelers today. Other products include Fiji water bottles, Coca-cola bottles (like the article "Isn't it Iconic" mentioned), certain food items like Kit Kat and Ramen Noodles.

3. Usability issues exist for packaging when it does not protect its contents and if the packaging is not reusable. In cases where a product fails to protect its contents we can look at a bag of flour, or a bag of chips. The packaging for a bag of flour is typically made of paper, which is easily ripped or torn. The same applies to the packaging of chips in foil bags; the bag does little to protect the chips from being crushed. When packaging is not reusable, we run into the problem that the packaging in not made with recyclable material, and that the package itself cannot be closed to store its original contents well, or that it cannot be used to serve some other purpose. I think an example of good packaging usability is the Whole Foods 365 bag of cane sugar. This bag has a ziploc opening which allows it to be closed easily. The bag is made of plastic which is sealed well, and can be used just like a ziploc bag when the sugar is all gone. An example of poor packaging usability, as previously mentioned, is a bag of flour. The packaging is usually paper which does not protect the contents and the flour cannot be easily stored with its original packaging.

"Know it All" Stacy Schiff

1. Schiff's main point is to share Wikipedia's birth and development as an online encyclopedia. She also touches on past attempts to create an encyclopedia long ago. I also think the author addresses the point that Wikipedia provides information about topics that are truly random. For example, she states that the traditional encyclopedia was not written to contain information on "Sudoku or about prostitution in China." Schiff brings to light that Wikipedia is a limitless outlet of information.
2. "The encyclopedic impulse dates back more than two thousand years and has rarely balked at national borders. Among the first general reference works was Emperor’s Mirror, commissioned in 220 A.D. by a Chinese emperor, for use by civil servants. The quest to catalogue all human knowledge accelerated in the eighteenth century. In the seventeen-seventies, the Germans, champions of thoroughness, began assembling a two-hundred-and-forty-two-volume masterwork. A few decades earlier, Johann Heinrich Zedler, a Leipzig bookseller, had alarmed local competitors when he solicited articles for his Universal-Lexicon. His rivals, fearing that the work would put them out of business by rendering all other books obsolete, tried unsuccessfully to sabotage the project."


The supporting evidence in this passage is effective because the topic sentence  is followed by facts that state previous attempts to create reference books, like an encycloypeida. Schiff gives more information regarding previous attempts instead of simply stating for how long it has been attempted. I found this passage interesting because it shared the evidence that not only Americans, most recently, sought to create an encyclopedia. 


3. Obviously, Wikipedia seems to be more informal in regards to who can access, edit, and glean from their information. Wikipedia's design set up appears to be more simple. Any user can simply type in a keyword, or subject and find information. Encyclopedia Britannica has created various categories such as featured video, this day in history, and world atlas; it appears to be much more complex. Wikipedia breaks a topic in to various subtopics and also includes a table of contents. Encyclopedia Britannica does not work as well, because it lacks a table of contents and subtopics (the information on the subject is a long article). The design of Wikipedia might appeal more to an individual looking for fast information and Encyclopedia Britannica might appeal more to someone conducting research on a subject.