Seek and you shall

find

Observation(an exercise in)

Opportunities exist everywhere

• From the humble strip mall

• To the mighty apple store

2

Starting with the most obvious:bowling alley

Observations Insights

The store is extremely hard to find. It took me more than 20 minutes to find

the first time, despite being able to locate it in the mall (Picture 1). There

are no signs except one tiny word

Put a big bold sign, with the establishment name and a big arrow

pointing to the establishment

It has a dreary atmosphere, low ceilings, barren feel (Picture 2), in the

basement of a mall

Put big TVs showing different sports to liven up the place

Put up a display in a prominent place in the mall showing scores of the games being played in the alley

alternating with live video to bring more customers

Set up a better bar with a bartender to increase revenue

Some of these insights aren't hard to make

This is the only sign inside the mall for the establishment

The place looks uninviting

The ceiling is low, furniture sparse, patrons few, the place could use livening up

Supermarket

Observations Insights

Nice, bright, inviting and full of produce/consumables, neatly laid out

aisles

Install a tall beacon which lights up when hand baskets are available in a

particular location

Bright sign at all ends, fresh, airy, high ceilings

Separating checkout from payment. After checkout and bagging, payment takes a lot of time. However payment

can be done separately from checkout, speeding up the checkout

process

Handbaskets are hard to find and hard to carry

The checkout is slow

Bright and airy, fully stocked sections

Impulse buys near the checkout

Apple Store

Observations Insights

The products are lined up for the customers to interact and play with

The products should have a app/button that calls attention of the store staff when a customer needs

help

No pressure to buy, knowledgeable staff

Having a virtual queue, so that customers don’t have to jockey for the

attention of a store staff

Hard to get attention of the staff when the store is busy

No way to just get pick up and buy the desired product

Department Store

Observations Insights

The store is huge with all kinds of products, upscale vibe and relatively

expensive goods

Offer walk in discounts/prizes randomly or at set intervals to

customers who walk in to increase footfall

Lots of staff to assist customers

The store is relatively empty during weekdays

Huge upscale store

The store has a good layout, with products placed strategically