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Social Human Factors: sudden group observation 3.27.08 The Shops at North Bridge Jung • Lim • Palit • Stirling • Xu Introduction and overall impressions Our group spent some time observing at The Shops at North Bridge, an upscale indoor mall on Michigan Avenue. The Mall is anchored by Nordstrom at the south end. There are 4 floors of high end stores, with a food court on the top floor. It is a very clean and safe place to be. The restaurants in the food court are not your typical mall restau- rants. They are equally as upscale in food offerings and price. The day we visited the weather was wet, cold with rain that was turning to snow. Due to the weather and the fact that it was “spring break” for many schools, there happened to be many people shopping and wan- dering around the mall. Space, environment, ambience Among many other aspects of the environmental observations, the only thing that I kept in mind was how the space and environment in- fluences the social interactions. Despite the fact that it was mid day in middle of week, there was quite a variety of people in the mall. Mainly family, singles, middle aged women gossiping, security guards, travel- ers (there was a hotel within the building), and I was amazed at the number of mall employees. It was an extremely ample space; especially the front entrance from Michigan Avenue, the ceiling was massively tall, as high as the entire four story building. The space was quite large, not huge but not too small compared to the entire capacity of the shop- ping mall. The space was well designed. A bridge connects Nordstrom to the shopping mall. In the atrium area, the large windows overlooked Rush Street with street lights and traffic signals at eye level.

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Social Human Factors: sudden group observation 3.27.08

The Shops at North BridgeJung • Lim • Palit • Stirling • Xu

Introduction and overall impressionsOur group spent some time observing at The Shops at North Bridge, an upscale indoor mall on Michigan Avenue. The Mall is anchored by Nordstrom at the south end. There are 4 floors of high end stores, with a food court on the top floor. It is a very clean and safe place to be. The restaurants in the food court are not your typical mall restau-rants. They are equally as upscale in food offerings and price. The day we visited the weather was wet, cold with rain that was turning to snow. Due to the weather and the fact that it was “spring break” for many schools, there happened to be many people shopping and wan-dering around the mall.

Space, environment, ambienceAmong many other aspects of the environmental observations, the only thing that I kept in mind was how the space and environment in-fluences the social interactions. Despite the fact that it was mid day in middle of week, there was quite a variety of people in the mall. Mainly family, singles, middle aged women gossiping, security guards, travel-ers (there was a hotel within the building), and I was amazed at the number of mall employees. It was an extremely ample space; especially the front entrance from Michigan Avenue, the ceiling was massively tall, as high as the entire four story building. The space was quite large, not huge but not too small compared to the entire capacity of the shop-ping mall. The space was well designed. A bridge connects Nordstrom to the shopping mall. In the atrium area, the large windows overlooked Rush Street with street lights and traffic signals at eye level.

ActivitiesThere were no planned or formal activities (such as a planned event, holiday fashion show or in store promotions) going on at the mall the day we observed. The activities people were participating in were the normal daily activities that take place at a shopping mall. There were shoppers, of course, who were buying things and taking them home in shopping bags. There were also the browsers, who seemed to be content to walk around looking at the merchandise without buying anything. People shopped, browsed, drank coffee and ate lunch.

Social InteractionsThe social activity level in the mall was unusually high the day we ob-served due to the bad weather and also because this happened to be “spring break” for many schools. Most of the activity was happening at the Lego store. The store encourages play and has large open bins of colorful legos to choose from. Entire families were involved in build-ing with legos. Ethel’s chocolate shop also had several small groups who were sitting and talking in comfortable chairs, while sipping hot chocolate or sampling chocolates. The other busy area was the food court. As lunchtime approached there were more families and couples buying food and then sitting down for lunch at the many tables on the top floor. On the first floor in the atrium/cafe area next to Nordstrom the activity level was considerably calmer. People were drinking coffee alone at tables or with one other person, several visitors were reading a book or the newspaper or just sitting quietly. Overall, the visitors in the mall were a diverse bunch: tourists, families and couples. As it got closer to lunch hour, business people and office workers came to the mall to shop or eat lunch, often in groups.

Social Human Factors: sudden group observation 3.27.08

The Shops at North BridgeJung • Lim • Palit • Stirling • Xu

Sofa, Chairs, Tables

Trash Can Espresso Bar

Hall Way

Windows

Reading Chatting Using the computer

The Shops at North Bridge

“A Day in the Life”Scattered in the mall are several kiosks where independent products are sold. I observed a young black man, a salesperson for “Proactive”, a skin care product. He sat on a chair at the end of the kiosk, working on his laptop computer. While I was observing he talked to a mother and daughter who approached the kiosk. He also spent his time ar-ranging the merchandise in the display. He talked on his cell phone and wrote on a clipboard. From time to time he got up and walked around the kiosk. The salesperson left the kiosk for a few minutes to speak to a man who works in the mall. When he wasn’t talking to customers he fingered his goatee and sat for lengths of time. Occasionally he opened a file cabinet under the kiosk.

ArtifactsWe observed artifacts in the mall: the display of shops, especially the mannequins that could be found in many stores. Their purpose is to display the clothes the shop is selling. People walking by stopped in front of these mannequins. When the displays catch peoples’s atten-tion, they might go inside the shop. The signage was also an artifact in the mall. It displays the name of the shop with the color, font and logo of the store. It is the store’s brand. I observed some people reading the signage for a few seconds, then enter the shop. I also noticed that some people did not even notice the signage. This seemed not to be an effective artifact. Other interesting artifacts were the round tables and chairs near the cafe where people were sitting and drinking coffee. The chairs could be moved and some people moved them to vary the layout.