When people ask me what I do, somewhere in the description I inevitably use the “S” word: signs. However, in today’s experience-based socially driven marketplace, brands, retail brands especially, need to move beyond signs and think about wayfinding in terms of the whole experience of the built environment, and how every element in a space can play a role in defining what we like to think of as intuitive wayfinding.

Intuitive wayfinding means a customer or staff member is able to navigate a space without stopping to think about it, and does not need to consciously keep track of where they are in the space. If a customer needs to look at a directional sign to figure out where to go, you’ve already lost the battle for an intuitive wayfinding experience. The intuitive wayfinding experience relies on a system of well organized, strategically placed visual cues to guide the consumer to their destination.

Space planning plays a key role in maintaining an intuitive navigational experience. In the planning stages, if your plan looks like a lab rat’s maze, then there is a pretty good chance it will feel like that when it’s built. However, a layout with the proper adjacencies, strategic departmental hierarchy, and ample common navigational walkways is well on its way to achieving intuitive wayfinding right from the start.

Secondly, large-scale landmarks of all kinds, both three-dimensional and two-dimensional, play a big part in developing an intuitive wayfinding experience. What says “Men’s Suits” better than a giant photo of a man in a suit? Large-scale landmarks also provide great support when staff members give verbal directions to customers, such as, “Walk towards the giant photo of the man in the suit.”

Third, a high level of visual activity can draw consumers in and give a sense of excitement and identity to a space. Focals packed with merchandise arranged interestingly, a collection of items that obviously belong to the adjacent department, announces all by itself where a customer is in the space. With these kinds of intuitive visual cues playing a larger role in the system, signs become the wayfinding back-up plan, the safety net, the last resort for a customer who can’t find their way.

With an intuitive wayfinding approach, brands can think more about how all elements in the environment can support wayfinding and less about which way the arrow should point on that “S” word with the list of departments hanging from the ceiling.

A: When I’m shopping at my local Kroger.

No, not the “Post” as in Raisin Bran; I’m referring to the physical post, or column, that is in the cereal aisle at my store.

The scene is this: my wife asks me to go get the Multi-Grain Cheerios so she can shop in peace for 10 minutes. She says, “Get the big box, unless the smaller box is on sale,” adding, “The Cheerios are close to the post about half-way down the aisle.”

If she wouldn’t have given me that navigational pointer, she probably would have bought herself 15 minutes of peace. The merchandise presentation in the cereal aisle is such a mess, so lacking in organization, I could easily have squandered more time, forced to scan every package, not finding what I was looking for. But since she gave me the post as my pole star, I managed to navigate past the lions and tigers and bears to the Cheerios. After a moment of anxiety while I scan the shelf for validation—Ta-dah!—I find the Mutli-Grain big box not on sale! 

Contrast this with my second mission, during which my wife gets only a few minutes of peace. I go to get a 12 pack of Pepsi. No need for her directional advice in the beverage aisle. I masterfully scan the 40 feet of shelf as I walk. “Nope, nope, nope… bingo!” I find the big blue block of Pepsi products.

The folks at Pepsi understand that the central color brand block draws shoppers down the aisle, and makes de-selection faster and easier; quantity comparisons are simpler to make. If only the breakfast aisle followed this example. There’s got to be a way to orchestrate the shelves that allows shoppers to navigate and deselect with greater ease. I can’t imagine the flakes-makers are driving much trial and category growth with shelf principles like these, or the lack of them.

Yes, a better aisle experience would cause me to return to my wife and the shopping cart in record time. But she can always send me over to wait in line behind the elderly persons at the deli counter.

Having read the article about the half-mile-long beaver dam in Alberta, Canada, it occurred to me that those beavers exemplify something frequently overlooked in the retail design business, the idea that it’s okay to fail.

You would have to imagine that over the reported 2800 linear feet of dam in what is basically a flat terrain, there’s the likelihood that sometimes it just doesn’t work the way they intended.  The colony has to react quickly to failure to ensure the safety of their habitat. If any of you beavers are reading this post and would like to broaden your portfolio, by all means, give us a call. Failure is an option in design as long as it’s smart failure and failing for the right reason. If it helps the idea move forward, then it might just net out the absolute best result.

In today’s market, retail brands developing a new design concept rarely have the luxury of time. Business pressure demands short design-and-build timeframes, followed by testing and refining. The original concept gets implemented across a variety of locations and architectures the offer the opportunity to engineer a new experience. In some cases,  the opportunities never get the proper amount of attention.  But when they do, the brand benefits. Much good comes from exploring various options, thoroughly test them with consumers and then using the insights to build something even more engaging at the next location. Failing forward.

My experience tells me that some of the most successful projects that I have had the opportunity to be involved with ended up that way because they continue to improve long after the first location is opened. Those brands realize the customer is a moving target whose expectations increase daily. To satisfy them and to keep them coming back, it takes a strong resolve to continuously improve.   

I am always inspired by my surroundings and the story of the beavers is a great case study on design. If and when beavers learn CAD and Photoshop, the design community at large might have some serious competition.

While I spend my days understanding shopper behavior and applying rigorous research and analysis methods to help companies “grow categories,” I spend my weekends shopping like crazy.  With my bank account being the victim of all of these great growth strategies! As you know, retailers and manufacturers are always finding new ways to create incremental growth or, simply put, make shoppers spend more.

One of my favorite places to shop is Target. Before I even make it into the store I have generally blown $20 on the dollar spot. After piling my cart with a bunch of stuff I really have no use for, my second stop is always the shampoo aisle. Regardless of need, I always stop. Something about the colors and the arrangement of the shampoo aisle just makes me feel so clean and orderly and I generally end up picking up something guaranteed to fix frizzy hair or give me more volume.

Well, much to my surprise, my venture into the shampoo aisle a few weeks ago yielded a fantastic new surprise! The new Pantene display! Aisle violators grabbed my attention as they organized the offering by color and hair solution. That’s right, hair solutions–easily found! And not only did the aisle violators frame up the offering, but the bottle packaging was new and perfectly coordinated with the signs. You can image my excitement as I quickly zeroed in on the “fine” solutions area. I left the aisle with a whole new system of hair care.

And as if that weren’t enough, over the past two weeks I have seen TV ads, magazine ads and even a billboard all showing the same solutions-oriented campaign. This prompted me to go to the Pantene website which just confirmed the greatness of this initiative; because it, of course, had the same message.

As a shopper scientist and self-proclaimed expert shopper (at least, that’s what I tell my husband) I just want to highlight this entire initiative to all of the CPG companies out there. It has all of the key elements needed to truly bring growth to a category. First, there was obviously research conducted to understand the category needs. Clearly, the brand understands that women have very specific concerns. Second, shopper research must have been done to understand that women come into the aisle looking for a solution, and that behavior needed to be addressed. Translating those shopper insights into action is critical! Third, the in-store execution is simple, easy to understand and gives the shopper just enough information to get where she needs before closing in on her specific product. Finally, Pantene brings it all together with a consistent campaign across every touchpoint of the brand from TV to website to billboards.

This, my CPG friends, is how it’s done! 

Recently, I had the opportunity to spend some time in our Madrid office collaborating with a cross disciplinary team to brainstorm and develop a cultural food destination concept that would be a reference point for the city of Madrid.  So far project and our ideas are having great success with the client and we are really excited about the potential of the concept.  

The experience of working abroad, for however long a period of time, in another office is fantastic!  If you ever get the chance to work in another office, especially globally, drop what you are doing and go!  It’s a great way to get a fresh perspective on what we do by seeing how other offices/cultures work and engage with each other and their clients.  Anytime you can get exposed to new people and fresh processes and ideas it’s really energizing!  This is true from both parties perspectives as well. The creative tools I brought were greatly appreciated by everyone, since it was a fresh way of working for them.  So, the door swings both ways.  I conducted a brainstorming/ideation session with the internal team only, and it was great to see everyone get excited by this “new” way of digging through ideas to discover the concept.  By the end, our brains hurt, we were a little sweaty and tired, so we went off to the bar to refresh our creative minds.  

Also, from a cultural standpoint it was interesting to see and understand the differences between what we have and do in the U.S. versus another culture.  Sometimes there are details that  seem insignificant to me (an American), but make all the difference when it comes to the experience to a Spaniard (ask me about my shrimp experience sometime).  But, being able to work through those details, with people who understand the culture, to reshape the idea to make it work, was awesome!

Finally, speaking as a creative person who is always looking for fresh ideas and inspiration, travel is always a good thing—excuse me, a GREAT thing!  I was able to work in a little sight seeing time both in the city of Madrid and in a small historical town outside the city named Segovia.  In both these places I was able to see some of Spain’s rich history, and experience the different brands and retailers that we don’t have in the states.

All in all, it,s an invaluable experience and I highly recommend it!

Ok, I have spent the last five years convinced that the marketing hype was just that—hype. Mostly from reading countless advertisements for LED lighting products that play on unsuspecting readers with questionable claims, such as Long life! Excellent color! High efficiency!  Brighter!

Well, what were previously exaggerated claims are now coming to be real. LED lighting products are here to stay. And the bubbling pot is about to explode. After years of refinements, and new industry regulation, the products are consistently better performers than the previous generation.

The US Department of Energy has developed a labeling program (I think it is voluntary) that provides a means of consistency for describing LED performance. It addresses Light Output, Watts, Efficacy, Color Rendering Index and Correlated Color Temperature. Or Brightness, Energy, Efficiency, Color Accuracy and Light Color.

It is a little like the nutrition labels on food products. And now I have confidence that the participating manufacturers have accurately represented performance of their LEDs.

Yes, they are here to stay, even in retail architecture. Smart engineers will find the proper application. LEDs are green and fit the sustainability profile—part of a surefire way to promote a green building effort.

Still a little costly in broad application, but they have some ideal applications. Check this one out from Evluma.

http://evluma.com/news/news-gsa_contract.html

Stay ahead of rapid expansion
Singapore, Seoul, and Mumbai are cutting edge markets and this means high expectations. Going into a project as a designer in these cities is intimidating. Shoppers live in aesthetic cultures where every imaginable design has been popularized. These cities are changing organically. It almost seems instantaneous. Within 3 months of being away from Singapore three new malls have opened. It’s all about knowing past/ present memes and looking toward ways of either (1) creating a new twist or (2) breaking the boundaries all together.

Stand out
In most cases Western design tends to fit in with its surroundings. Success in Asia is all about being bold. Whether it be a silly chewing gum commercial or neon signage that puts Times Square to shame, there is always something screaming for your attention. When you consider how busy people are in cities like Beijing and Tokyo, getting someone’s attention takes a strong effort. In my opinion, the solution to this is a simple design that allows for a detox from all the noise.

Design practical and durable
In South East Asia dirt is a big issue. Visual identity systems are often colorful with no white. In places like the Philippines, hot weather and dirty streets make the use of that modern pure white seem like a silly idea. From a culture perspective, the European black and grey palette, that we strive so hard to achieve, is irrelevant amongst cities like Bangkok where the taxis are hot pink and golden palaces litter the cityscape.  

Be Flexible
Living in a “Cultural Salad” means tackling different issues than when in a “Melting Pot.”  Building retail experiences that resonate amongst different segments and cultures means being able to truly understand the differences of the people that make up the cultures. The smart way to approach this is to design a system of parts that can live in any scenario rather then focusing on the actual shell of a location. A clever use of universal imagery and messaging proves very effective. Just look at Wegamama’s (Japanese for “selfish”) in the UK. Their iconic image of a boy eating from a bowl is genius. You understand right away what the image is saying and without a specific identity to the subject, the photo has the ability to be relevant in any region.

    
Respect superstition
Each culture has its own specific set of rules. Going into a meeting with a clear respect and understanding for these rules can mean life or death of a project. I have been in meetings where the general feeling of a downward slopping logo mark was interpreted as negative and almost was shot down. Feng Shui in Chinese culture plays a major role in the designing of brands. I have heard of projects that needed to be reworked after a Feng Shui master came in and commented on how the shape of the logo was sucking out the wealth and positive energy of the organization. Buildings in Singapore have been publicly exiled for being too sharp and therefore allowing the positive energy to flow out of the city into the ocean. The same mood and feelings towards a store plays toward shopper habits as well. Lots of these rules may appear silly but if you really investigate some of the findings do lead to great solutions. It’s like Chinese medicine, no one really knows what goes into them, but somehow it works.

For years, the majority of cash at quick service restaurants has gone “through the window.”  The growing car culture has dictated a focus on drive-thru efficiency to the point where the dining room has become an afterthought to operators and subsequently a barrier to customers.

The cost of updating and maintaining a dining room has seemed cost prohibitive to many QSR chains and their franchisees, especially in light of the high drive-thru ratio. But by not offering a unique, pleasant dining experience, they have let the brand image wither on the vine. And it’s now coming back to haunt them. I contend that the high drive-thru ratio is in large part due to customers avoiding the “ick” factor of enduring outdated, smelly, deteriorating environments with no sense of place or brand personality.

The dining room is the brand.
Most customers will, at some point, come inside and that is the greatest opportunity to make a connection. Panera and Starbucks understood this a long time ago and snagged loads of customers that wanted a clean and cozy place to enjoy the product. McDonalds and Burger King have seen the light and announced major remodeling and prototype initiatives that appear to be paying off.

So to my friends in the QSR and Fast Casual game: differentiated, branded and engaging experiences win with customers; there is only so much connection you can make at the pay window. So elevate your brand with every possible touchpoint including the most important and substantial asset you have—your dining room.

While I was listening to WNYC Radiolab the other day I came across an interesting episode centered on choice and decision making influencers. Being a designer, I am always searching for new ideas and concepts to weave into my work, so I clicked on the link. In an hour the host took me through a whirlwind of studies examining the variations of why we choose the way we do and what factors can influence our decisions. And what does it all boil down too? 

Stress has a tremendous affect on our ability to make appropriate selection.

To quote my mother, this over-simplified answer is an “astute observation of the obvious.” However, when broken apart, the program’s individual experiments struck me as simple learning blocks that could easily be applied to a retail environment. 

Basically, if a person is over-stimulated in an environment a simple decision of what apple to buy can become ridiculously hard because there is too much information for them to just make a choice. They start to tune out their fast moving intuition to make a more educated selection on an item that they could really care less about. In the end, those who were over-stimulated tend to be disappointed.

Thinking back on several “happy purchases” I have made in my life, I can say with certainty that they were at my favorite stores. They were bought out of instant inspiration or times when I felt confident and in control. These purchases put me on a pedestal and made me feel better about myself.

In retail design, we need to understand what creates stressful environments and craft spaces that destroy those barriers. We should champion the customer by creating awareness without overload and give them a purchase they can feel rewarded about.

So I’m sitting in a Starbucks in Sacramento CA waiting to meet with the city planner regarding a new building design and notice the building across the street has an HVAC unit mounted at the peak of a bowstring truss roof. You’ve got to be kidding me! As they say on “Modern Family,” What the face! Where is the enforcement?

You would think they were trying to make a mechanical engineering cupola statement as part of the design concept or something. Wow, who does that and what city planner or inspector approved that?

As design professionals, we go through great pains to design buildings that screen ugly mechanical equipment to improve the look of the street scape at every juncture. We work with the cities and their planners to provide multiple renderings and diagrams to show that this type of equipment won’t be visible from the street level.

I would love to know how contractors and owners get by with this stuff and get it approved. Bottles of Scotch maybe? Who are the inspectors? Did they not notice this? Sometimes it seems that there is a double standard when it comes to design and approvals. Take heed, fellow retail architects. With all the cuts within the city departments, it tells me that structures are getting built without any review or inspection. It’s all on you.

When I see this type of debacle it reinforces to me why we are so critical of our designs, and why we look at the project in its entirety from a big picture view. It helps me sleep at night knowing that we care when we deliver our work.