What I have read already from Paco Underhill's book is fascinating. Again we are focusing on human behavior in the built environment, this time in the shopping context. It's amazing how far Underhill and his company can go to research human behavior, and yet it is constantly changing. Their work is never complete.
The attitudes and reactions evoked by product placement, advertising, physical comfort, and human interaction are the focus of this science. Yet it is not a far leap to begin to study what sells a television show, for instance...
So how does a designer transfer this level of detailed study of human behavior to the creation of the built environment outside of the shopping context? I think there is something to be learned here from the diligence and attention to detail developed by Underhill and his team, not to mention the passion! For shopping of all things!
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I agree with you Anne. It is hard not to want to make the leap in applying the diligence with which Underhill observes human behavior in a shopping context, to the other clientele that we have. Unfortunately, excluding the custom home designers, we don't always get to know our clientele is such a specific way, or get the opportunity to observe them in a context that is applicable to the job at hand. I work in the multi-family residential field, which I believe you do also, so for instance, I am working on a condominium development in the Short North (a district of Columbus that is the hot spot for art/entertainment etc. just on the outskirts of the central business district), we can guess at the type of buyer that we will be encountering due to the location, the amenities, the price range, and we can appeal to that buyer with the design, but to be able to observe each individual buyer with such intensity as Underhill and then apply that observation to the development of 46 units is extremely hard. I’m am trying to think of other types of users that can be observed as anonymously as shoppers. Food service, schools… I know manufacturing companies spend plenty of time and money researching the behavior of their employees in an attempt to make them more efficient.
Well, see you in Boston!!
Its strange to me, and maybe we will find out the further into the book we read, but it seems that the next step from all Underhill's observations, and like Karrick began to describe, is that there is some sort of formula that can be applied to things. I think that Underhill may have really hit the nail on the head in a market that may have no end, because each situation is so different, but it seems to me that schools are something that Columbus thinks it has the perfect formula for. So perfect, in fact that they have it down to the exact square footage required for an optimal learning experience (ha ha)! Low income housing has minimum requirements (10'x10' minimum bedrooms, 851 square feet for a two bedroom apartment)and a list of optional requirements (covered entry, handles on drawere) that someone decided make living more luxurious. I think we are always being watched!
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