Assignment 3 – Design Safari

Observing Peoples Behaviour In Public

For this assignment I was introduced to ‘Ethnography’ a term I was unfamiliar with, but using it as a research method to gather information on human behaviour was quite interesting, not only for me but seeing if people noticed you making observations and causing them to react differently. It was fascinating to see how different people behaved in a public space- whether they were alone or with other people.

For this research two friends and I chose to go to Starbucks coffee shop in the town centre, an ideal location to observe the behaviour of a range of people. In Starbucks there did not appear to be a specific stereotype, there was a wide spectrum of people of different race, culture and age. There wasn’t a particular group of people in society in this public space.

The full length windows design seem to invite people into it. We quickly realised that people knew how to queue without thinking, showing a well thought out design. The take-away service is also another good service design to get people to use the product without spending too much time and seats are not taken up by these consumers. Another good strategy is the installation of wi - fi. A lot of business- like people were on their laptops making use of it, encouraging them to come to the coffee shop The only downfall about the layout is that the shop has quite a confined space, so people on their own appear more conspicuous. For example, a woman dropped her bottle of water but before picking it up she looked around to see if anyone was watching her. So, people on their own in a public place possibly behave differently than if in company. Her body language appeared hesitant as if she felt she was being watched. It was also noticeable that ‘single’ consumers generally tended to occupy themselves, reading the newspaper or using their mobile phones. This gives the impression that they feel awkward and self conscious about being watched. What I have just described displays normative action, but people’s behaviour may be influenced by different situations and conditions, depending on how they feel in these situations, for example, if they feel really relaxed and interested in what they are doing. Weather conditions may also have an effect. Observing the service within the shop, we noticed that when serving customers the employees put on an act, an unnatural kind of behaviour, showing that people can adjust their behaviour appropriately to suit the situation. People who were with others didn’t seem to notice or bother about their surroundings. They appeared oblivious to others around them. For example, there was a young group of teenagers who sat away from everyone else in their own space, maybe for others to realise that they had a certain identity in society.

We also decided to observe what people were wearing. A lot of people appeared to use popular retail shops, giving us some idea about their identities. They like to follow present fashion trends What people wear and how they behave in situations make them interesting to observe. We found that people would rather pick who they sat next to, maybe they look at how others are dressed or by how they show themselves in public. This made us realise that people constantly make judgements about the people around them, showing a pattern in behaviour. For example there was one man who stood out and had free spaces around him as people decided to sit elsewhere.

In conclusion, people’s behaviour changes depending on certain factors including whether they are on their own, in a group, in familiar or unfamiliar surroundings. Also, people constantly, sometimes unintentionally, make judgements about others, by their appearance and actions and slot them into groups in society. This shows a pattern in behaviour. People shouldn’t make judgements before getting to know someone, but that is how we start to find people we think are similar to ourselves All three of us felt uncomfortable observing others, even although we were doing it together, as some people noticed that we were observing, making it harder for us to carry out. Some people may have felt we were invading their privacy while they were just there to relax. Believing that someone is watching you can make you more self conscious, particularly if you are on your own and although we were doing the observing we felt like we were being watched at the same time. After observing people we came to realise that making assumptions and slotting people into stereotypes by their appearance and behaviour can influence what we think about them, but it’s important to realise that observing only gives a small insight into people in society.

This is a quick sketch of the design layout of the shop.