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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.'"
As an architect, design consultants make my blood boil. While Mr Underhill may have spent hours in the local mall, noticing that people wander counterclockwise, a list of rules to follow does not a good design make.
His suggestions- glass staircase scares off the oldsters, an "In Stock Now!" sign so people could tell it was a store, and putting more tchochkes at the checkout to get those impulsive spenders- all reek of items that would work well in a supermarket. I'm sure this guy makes millions getting retail corporate sheep to follow his dogmatic design rules (and they are dogmatic- I would hardly call some behavioral observations "science", no matter what the title of his book is.) but if he could step back and realize the kind of people Apple is marketing towards (at the very minimum, a group of people who appreciate good design) then he would know that those people who aren't afraid of a Unix-based operating system sure as hell aren't going to be afraid of a glass staircase. These people will be annoyed by cheap signs littered throughout a space trying to grab your attention (the architectural equivalent of a blinking banner ad) and the few coffee cups at the checkout counter trying to squeeze an extra four dollars out of you while you are waiting in line to spend two thousand.
This is the kind of genius that thinks they should put some kind of pricing special into their ads (Order now and get the Yao Ming/Mini Me combination Powerbook/bobblehead free! Operators are standing by!)
Strange how he picked an atypcial store to analyze. Most Apple stores are one floor. In any case, one hopes there's more to his analysis than just the 7 points he mentions, especially since the Apple Store apparently fails five of them. (But a concession stand in an Apple Store? What, instead of free Evian?) Nevertheless, Apple Stores are, even by the author's own account, a success, so you have to wonder if perhaps the rules are flawed. It may be precisely because Apple Stores are so different that people are intruiged by almost everything in the store.
As a side note, I have to wonder how many females traverse the glass staircase in skirts or dresses.
...Probably none, actually.
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.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
Gateway contracted the Cow to design their Gateway Country stores.
__ Someday, but not this morning, I'll finally learn to use the preview button.
It occurred to me the other day that Apple is steering us towards the shiny (brushed) metal future that countless science fiction books, movies, TV shows, movies and conceptual art has foretold.
The clean look that surrounded factious HAL's world in 2001: A Space Odyssey is becoming Apple's reality.
The stores are just an extension of this; they have managed to create, as others have pointed out, an environment that is conducive to buying because it doesn't seem designed for selling. Yes, it shows off the products, but it doesn't show them off the obvious here's-the-damn-product way that car showrooms do, and it doesn't layer products on shelves like Wal-Mart (and most everyone else). It just sets the products up the ideal space you would want to use them, a sterile (yet warm and comfortable) studio somewhere overlooking the flying-car future of New York.
It reminds me of Gerhard Richter, the fussed-over German painter, who lives in such an environment: homely sterility.
But what Apple does is pretty much impossible for any else to replicate: They are able to create such an environment because they not only dictate what is sold (Wal-Mart does this) but because they make (i e design) most everything they sell. Additionally they set the most-always-followed president for the design of products that accompany what they make: Their human interface design stretches beyond the software that runs on their OS, it encompasses most every product and most every product box that they sell.
Because of this kinetic link not just between what they make and what they sell but what other people make for them to sell, Apple is uniquely able to create the Apple Store, something no Windows PC maker could because of the mesh that makes up not just their software or hardware world, but any front-end retail attempts.
"Processor speed is becoming more and more of a factor?" By processor speed, I assume you must mean how many gigahertz it has. I suppose that's why Intel's just introduced the 1.6 GHz Centrino chips, which they claim is significantly faster than 2.5 GHz P4s. On the contrary, it's becoming more and more evident that processor speed is becoming one of the less important factors for consumer. The fact that the PC industry is still essentially suffering during a time when processors have made incredible gains in speed should be proof enough that speed isn't enough of a hook to get consumers to buy new machines. The stores are doing great for Apple. They're well-lighted, well organized, and the environment is very friendly. The Apple Stores are also the only computer retail store I've ever visited with female sales clerks. By that, I mean, women who are actually technically non-clueless and who do more than just stand around ringing up the register. The fact is, the Apple stores are already ringing up - what, some 20% of sales for Apple. We're talking a mere 50 or so stores that are on track to bring in close to half a million dollars of revenue each year. Clearly, people love the stores. How you can associate the lack of 2+ Ghz G4s with the stores being a wasted effort is beyond me.