1. What do you feel were the author’s key points in this chapter?
In Chapter Six of City: Rediscovering the Center, William H. Whyte evaluates good design for a city center/major city street. His key points are second storiness, window shopping, trash, walkways, and the selling entrance. Whyte particularly focuses on window shopping, naming stoppages, merchandise – bargain and expensive, movement, light, and sound as the most important aspects in attracting customers.
2. Compare Whyte’s ideas on design to Norman’s concepts that we studied earlier. What’s similar? What’s different?
The biggest difference between Whyte’s ideas on design to Norman’s concepts is that Whyte is both specific (focusing on city streets and centers) and vague (not really naming any specific elements of design). On the other hand, Norman is quite specific, categorizing design as a whole into three groups – visceral design, behavioral design, and reflective design. Furthermore, Whyte seems to be more concerned with the way things work (i.e., if certain window displays are effective, or how obstructions on street-side walkways affect pedestrian and customer traffic), whereas Norman puts just as much emphasis on visceral and reflective design as he does on behavioral. However, that is indeed a similarity between the two – both authors agree that behavioral design is essential for anything to have a successful design.
3. Create a checklist, based on Whyte’s chapter, that could be used to analyze an urban area.
- Window shopping – the merchandise displayed and the best ways to attract customers
- Trash cans – effective and efficient
- Cleanliness
- Walkways – must be wide enough for the usual amount of pedestrian traffic
- Seating – benches and/or tables and chairs
- Images/atmospheres that the stores project – displays, signs, music, etc.
No comments:
Post a Comment