Comments on: Washing Machines & Supermarkets

By: Aral Balkan

Aral Balkan — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 22:05:16 +0000

Oh, and I couldn’t agree more about washing machines

By: Aral Balkan

Aral Balkan — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 21:59:26 +0000

I remember studying about supermarket layout in a business class in a different lifetime. They do meticulously plan the design of the stores but not to make your life easier. Rather, they want you to spend as much time as possible in the store. So they’re designed to make you walk around as much of the store as possible and, hopefully, buy things that were never on your list.

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 14:25:34 +0000

Matt, that’s very interesting. I suspected that’s the case. And clearly, supermarkets are not spending enough money.

I’ve noticed that any shopping list or plan I write tends to get eclipsed by the barrage of ads I face when I enter a supermarket. In addition to these irritating mental distractions, I rarely feel like I have much control over where I end up. I should mention that I don’t have attention deficit disorder.

I think there’s a lot of potential for improving supermarket layouts and three-dimensional spaces which entail some kind of human interaction or process (airports!), and it’d be fun to draw up some kind of prototype for improvement.

By: Matt Carey

Matt Carey — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 13:20:18 +0000

Rebecca, supermarkets spend a large amount of time and money (and have dedicated teams) on the customer journey. The store layouts are planned down to the inch, with stores having plans for every shelf so you see the products in the order they want you to. It is very scientific actually. Their aim? To make you spend more of course…

By: tom

tom — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 22:50:14 +0000

Re: supermarkets

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4iYigkyVeQ

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 18:13:43 +0000

Oh, don’t get me wrong… I love gadgets. I never read instruction manuals. I like to work everything out by myself, by trial and error. It probably helps that I’m young, and that I experimented with technology early on.

However, if something is designed in a way that is just not intuitive, then I believe the design has failed. Gadgets can get as complex as technology allows; they can and should still be easy to use. The challenge is to have powerful technology that can do a lot of stuff and still be easy to use.

I also think that blaming and mocking users isn’t the best way forward for the design industry. Charlie Brooker: “People over 50 are the worst offenders”; “Recently, I was on a plane, sitting beside an 80-year-old woman who couldn’t comprehend how the in-flight entertainment system worked.”

Mocking old people: nice.

By: Alex R

Alex R — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 17:54:02 +0000

I agree with your view on washing machines - however, this chap probably wouldn’t!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2244114,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=technology