The Journey Through Space

I don’t publish my blogs. I write them because a friend over coffee said, “Hey, you should put some blogs on your website it really helps for new businesses”

Not being the most business-minded person…even though I own two, I was all about it…Give me the idea to go create something and think about my favorite subject simultaneously? So I write blogs a couple times a year at intervals when I am stuck in CA or accounting and not in the creative Phase of projects.

I miss college. It feels like it was a hundred years ago, but some part of me still longs for those late nights thinking about design, the study of space, those moments when ideas turn into theories and then turn into conversations that last way too long. But never long enough.

In this blog, I am using it to investigate movement of the body through space. The importance of things within that space that define when, how, and why, a person travels the way they do and what, if anything, decides the path they take.

Sure we are all free will…but are we? Lets examine that.

I can remember in college, even though that was a very long time ago, we were instructed to design & brand a Retail project inside of a mall. My first thought process was ‘how am I going to get people out of the corridor into, and then through this said store?’

I won’t go through the details of the design profile, but the concept was strong enough to win me first place in a design competition. It was fascinating to be thinking about how I could use space to capture the eye and draw them in. What grabs the masses? What do people respond to in the broadest audience. Not just men, women, or some random demographic…but everyone. How can I use the power of design to manipulate people. In a nice way.

Now, an entire generation of millennials and a few wrinkles later, here I am revisiting this topic.

Naturally, I turn to AI for my research on this topic. Ugh. Don’t get me wrong…I don’t long for the days, and all-nighters, at the library…but what’s good for the intellect is not necessary good for creativity or the spirit.

It spit out a pile of dense academic jargon: kinetics, kinematics, anatomy, neurology, probably some words no one uses outside a lab, so I had to exit that plan and explore my mind.

So how and why does space shape decisions of how we navigate through it?

Lets dive in because it’s meaningful.

1. Spatial Layout

There’s no magic here. Placement of walls block space, furniture and objects within nudges you around, and if you ignore any of that you’ll end up with a bruised shin or a cracked skull. Not mysterious, just physics + common sense.

2. Encouraging Movement

When you have an open floor plan, void of the walls that determine you aren’t going there (bullet point we just covered) then you have few things you can do to encourage a path. The most obvious is to put something in the focal point, that is where the eye goes to and the direction you are looking at when you walk through the door. Put something in the eye that calls out ‘hey over here’.

In this open plan, were taking out the idea of a need. Directing movement is easy using signage or wayfinding, which is helpful for directing people to their need, but that’s not what this is about.

Were discussing manipulating, in a positive light, so I’m focused on the underlying influences for people without needs. The theories and trickery.

3. Directing Movement

Architectural cues direct movement by creating a visual narrative or providing subtle, or loud, ‘instructions’ to move. Think of it like at a museum where you get a piece of the story and then you get another piece of the story and so on. Maybe they move to the first part of the ‘story’ by wanting to touch, or interact with something, and now we have chapter 2 just a short distance away. Do you see how this is working?

4. Creating Zones

Designers use balance and proportion to define different activity zones (i.e. a quiet reading nook vs. a social area), which subtly prompts occupants to use their bodies in specific ways (sitting quietly vs. conversing).

I’m not sure this is what I am looking for with the manipulation theory, but there is something to the zones idea, and it probably would work if you doubled up with another tool, like the sound or smell. Alone, unless there is a need which we aren’t addressing here… it’s not going to be a big player.

5. Sensory Stimulation

The senses are the best! What a sad world it would be without them. I’ve often pondered which one I would give up if I had to give up one and I think it would be hearing. As awful as that would be, I’d rather drown out the noise than lose my sight, god forbid, or sense of smell - which would knock out my sense of taste too…I digress.

LIGHTING LIGHTING LIGHTING! I’ve said it a million times…you can put the most luxurious expensive fabric in the world in a badly lit room and its insta-ugly. So friends…please know your lighting. Know your lumens, your kelvins, your CRI, or hire someone who does. Why is it that jewelry stores and high end clothing stores put lighting that sparkles and makes everything look like a million bucks including you? Because it works.

I’m not sure lighting is going to be the ranker of manipulating elements, but it’s what AI or information is pointing me to for this study. It would most definitely help highlight elements in context that we are using to manipulate movement for sure. Poor LED or fluorescent certainly could make you run the opposite direction.

Color is another sensory stimulator. But this also can work against you. Most people love color, want more color, want a colorful life. I’m a minimalist myself, so my ‘colors’ are neutrals, which I prefer, but for this purpose (manipulating movement) they are going to need the double-up theory. What’s that you ask? Lets add two other elements for manipulation, and then triple-up by combining it with storytelling. boom.

Using my project again as an example, we want this person to go all the way to the very back of the store. This way they have to see everything that we are selling and we can show and tell them what they want and need.

Tools 1-5

Start - something of huge interest is at a focal point. I actually used this to pull ‘people’ into the store from the mall in my college Retail project. Making sure nothing blocked it’s direct view. (merchandising and millwork in this instance) This ‘object of desire’ was a giant sphere was part of the logo and branding for the name of said store, so I was incorporating the logo and making it a huge piece of art that could be seen. It was definitely a point of interest and meant to spark curiosity, so lets leave it at that not getting caught in the details.

Knowing people are curious and attracted to artsy things is a great manipulation tool. The exact point of interest object will be brand specific or concept specific for every project, but I think it’s a game changer in evoking a response like movement.

Ok, so we have a persons eye on the target in the focal point. They are following a path now, and since we know the path will be blocked by 1. Spacial Layout (walls & objects in the way) you can already predict the path they will need to take. Here, you begin to layer in that path more instructions (2 3 4 & 5) to move, story telling, think museum again, where you have a piece of the puzzle and you move to the next vignette to get more of the story. Layered and grouped 2 3 4 & 5 in various textures, sensory stimulation, lighting, colors, tactile things to touch, visual cues and affirmations, rewards of pleasing fabrics or feels, the smell of leather or the sound of a cracking fire.

Not literal, just illustrative. Again, all of it ultimately ties back to the concept, the brand, the story the space is telling. I would say we have a 90% chance of manipulation to move success rate here. Unless someone walked in to use the bathroom.

Well that was fun. Now out of theory and back to invoicing, submittals, & spec books.

It was nice to have a conversation, even with myself, about design.

It’s a conversation I never get tired of having.