Design Guru Critiques Apple Retail Store

xdfgf writes "Paco Underhill, CEO of Envirosell, gives an overview, and explains aspects, of the floor plan of the SoHo Apple store. Quote from the article: 'If success lurks in details like those, it explains why Apple CEO Steve Jobs spends half a day each week with a 20-member design team, hashing out tweak after tweak in each of his 53 retail stores. In one session, the group agonized over three types of lighting to get Jobs's iMacs to shine just as they do in glossy ads.'"

Comments

Helpful and minamilist ...

[Midnight Thunder]

I think the thing that the designer doesn't quite get the concept of the store. It is meant to feel helpful and minamilist. You end up wanting to buy a product simply because you don't feel that you are being forced to buy something and thus you feel that you are buying by choice and with your defenses down.

Walking into an Apple store is akin to walking into a luxury car show room. Nobody talks prices or tries to sell you anything, until *you* want to, yet the product for sale is presented there and you buy it because you know you want it and that you feel you are being treated with due respect, rather than a jerk who will accept the salesman's forced pitch.