Whyte City

1. What do you feel were the author's key points in this chapter?

Whyte talked about how people interact with stores from the exterior, how people always seem to be in a rush when they are walking along the street and don't always pay attention to what's going on around them. His other main point is that a street's beauty and appeal comes from the fact that the design doesn't feel forced; it just works. He believes more in simplicity, that less is more and in the end it's really all about function. Similar to what Gibbs said about the shopping malls, he said the more things there are to distract pedestrians, the less likely they are to enter the stores they pass by. And then the more likely a store is to make a sale.

2. Compare Whyte's ideas on design to Norman's concepts that we studied earlier. What's similar? What's different?

Norman's focus was on visceral, behavioral, and reflective design. Whyte focuses a lot on the behavioral aspect of design when he talks about the design of the streets. He focuses on what functions well and what doesn't, and that doesn't always mean something will look pretty. This is something Norman touched on as well--sometimes the things that function the best aren't the most attractive on the outside. Something that Norman didn't touch on much, if at all, was how people, for some reason, like the busyness of the streets. Maybe it's crammed and very loud, but people still like it. They like their usual routine, which often involves a busy street, and they aren't going to go out of their way to change their routine. Whyte also talked a lot about the store's entrance, and how the entrance has a large role in the flow of the street. If the store's exterior is viscerally appealing, they will stop, look a while, then eventually walk in. Norman talked more about just the visceral aspects of the store's design without much analysis of traffic flow. However, both agree that stores need that visual appeal to lure people into their store.

3. Create a checklist, based on Whyte's chapter, that could be used to analyze an urban area.

-Traffic flow on the street

-Does the visceral appeal outweigh the behavioral aspects of the design

-How tall is the building

-Design of the store's exterior (door, entranceway)

-Are there too many distractions that would take people's attention away from the store?

-Are there enough trash cans to discourage people from littering? Dirty streets=people less likely to shop. If the area is too dirty, people won't want to walk in the streets and that will decrease sales.