Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Whyte's City

1) Whyte’s key point in this chapter is that the beauty of the street is that it does not feel designed. The less design you incorporate to get the desired outcome, the better the street will function. Also, the more things there to distract the customers and throw them off their guided course, the more they are likely to purchase. Whyte gives examples of window shoppers and the correlation between the number of “lookers” and “buyers.” Also Whyte discusses that if people are stopped, distracted or forced to walk around something, sales will increase. Basically the chapter says that the less design put into the street to coerce people into buying things, the more things they will actually purchase.

2) The principles that Whyte introduces in this chapter are similar in some aspects to the principles that Norman used. From this chapter, I noticed a lot of behavioral issues with the streets, something that Norman discussed often. The flow of the street was crammed, it was loud and noisy but for some reason, people like the street and like to shop there. Whyte also discusses the design of the entranceway of the stores while Norman explained the design of the door itself, and at first I drew a natural comparison between the two, but as I read further the differences become evident. Norman speaks of the door and the design of the door, and I’m sure Whyte would agree with this, however, Whyte went a step further and discussed the appeal of the entranceway. Whyte explained that the entrance needs to be able to control the flow of traffic, keep it moving and by doing this, people will stop to chat and “pause, as if to get their bearings, look about, and then move on.” The entrance needs to be viscerally attractive; it needs to literally pull people into the store, which is a principle common between both Norman and Whyte.

3) Some aspects that could be included in a checklist for Whyte may be the flow of the pedestrian traffic on the street, the height of the buildings, the design of the entranceways and even the design of the trash containers. The design of the trash containers are a big part of the flow of the street, if they are too hidden then people will be likely to litter, but if they in the middle of the walk way then people will become aggravated and frustrated. Also if the design of the container itself is poor, then trash may begin to fall out of not go in the first place.

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