6 design lessons from the Apple Store

Here in San Francisco, Apple fans celebrate the long-awaited opening of the Apple Store. (Of course, for several months now there is a shop behind the Gulf, but this is quite another). As the newest of the five leading stores, the Apple Store - San Francisco reflects the company's latest thoughts on how to translate the uniqueness of the brand from software and hardware products to the user experience of buying goods.

There are many ideas applied in the Apple Store that can be used in the design of various products, as well as a few lessons that we can learn from Apple’s mistakes.
')

1. Create an impression, not a product.

To persuade a visitor to go up to the second floor is a task that most retail stores have long refused to solve. The Apple Store takes on the challenge literally, making the center of the store a staircase — a really cool staircase. It is difficult to resist the temptation to put your foot on the first, fully glass stage. Once you are on it, you can discern a demo cinema at the end of the stairs. The next thing that happens is that you find yourself on the top floor before you finish (or start) with the first one.

Attention to the field of view of the buyer permeated the entire store. The only thing hidden from the eyes when you enter is a cash register. It’s more like a walk through a museum in which things can be touched with hands than a visit to a store. Naturally, Apple wants to sell the product, but their main goal is to make you want the product. And this desire will begin with your impression of the products in the store.

2. Exalt the context

Instead of organization by type, the printers are there, the cameras are there, the products on the first floor of the store are organized by the context in which they are usually used. Seeing digital cameras working together, photo printers and the Apple iPhoto program, visitors can immediately imagine how they will use these products in their lives. Realizing the importance of context in the design of the store, Apple encourages its visitors to dream about new opportunities.

This awareness of the importance of context can be felt even in the most routine part of everything you do at the Apple Store - payment for goods. Cashiers make a transaction carefully and leisurely, which gives a clear understanding of the philosophy of Apple: your relationship with the company does not end at the time of purchase; they are just beginning. This approach works great when you buy a computer, but it seems a bit redundant if everything you came to the store for is a FireWire cable. By optimizing the approach and creating good impressions in one context, Apple may lose sight of impressions in other equally important cases.

3. Report only the important

A typical store is a cacophony of messages: packaging, signage and promotional material climbs into the eyes, competing and fighting for the attention of the buyer. Visually, the Apple Store is very different. With rare exceptions, boxes of goods lie below eye level and relatively few products are on display.

Instead of looking for a place for each message, Apple focuses on a small number of really meaningful ones. Apart from well-arranged signs telling about upcoming events, most of the graphic materials in the store are more common than trying to convey any characteristic details; not informative, but rather decorative. Product information is placed so that you notice it after paying attention to the product itself.

4. Ensure integrity

Every time, when confronted with a trademark, whether it is an advertisement on TV, in magazines or on the street, or using one of the company's products, the consumer is imbued with the Apple personality. Branded stores are no exception: Apple is able to distribute its own style through any of these channels, carefully respecting the integrity of the design.

The polished metal surfaces that you see in the interior and exterior of the store create the impression that you are inside a product that came off the same conveyor as the PowerBook or iPod. The grills above the fans for air conditioning may not quite accurately repeat the external panel of the Power Mac G5, but the similarity is undeniable. And if the bolts on the stairs or handrails seem familiar, you can easily recognize the design of the back of your iMac. And of course, the graphic style and typography perfectly correspond to what you can see in the program interfaces, packaging and advertising of Apple.

5. Plan your changes.

Where rapid changes are necessary, the Apple Store has mechanisms to provide them. Displays on the windows of the store are equipped with ordinary panels that are mounted on tracks and cables. This system allows you to replace screens quickly and easily (and, as you might guess, without much monetary cost), while at the same time providing a wide range of opportunities to draw the attention of passers-by to the window.

At the same time, it is not quite clear how the store as a whole will adapt to the changes. Over the past six years, the aesthetics of Apple products have changed dramatically twice: for the first time when the company broke out of the beige boxes, the standard of computers of the time, presenting a seductive, iMac in 1998; then again, when I switched to a modern aluminum-white design, launching the Titanium PowerBook G4 in 2001.

What will happen to the interior design when the next global change in the product line occurs? Will the stores close one by one to be updated, in order to then appear in a completely different form, corresponding to the new design concept? Or will they remain a sketch of the current Apple design motif, which is aging from year to year?

6. Do not forget about the human factor.

The retail store is not just shelves, tables and lighting. People who serve the store, are an integral part of the impressions that the company produces. The Apple Store staff is not like ordinary retail workers. Instead of badges with the names on the chest, they carry personal business cards with them. And they all wear iPods on a belt, giving the impression that they are not just working at Apple - they live in the same Apple style they sell. Apple retailers are genuine brand representatives.

At the same time, the human factor is the biggest drawback of the Apple Store - San Francisco. The brand and Apple products seem to promise that communication with the company's staff will be the same: enthusiastic, accessible and useful, which is not entirely true. Of course, many employees are very kind, but you might as well come across an employee who is indifferent and disinterested. Some answer questions in detail and with genuine desire, while others simply turn away and walk away without saying a word.

At these moments, you remember that you are just another retail store. This is a strong disappointment amid the expectations that generous attention to every detail of the Apple Store creates. Design can only lead to this point; To create a general sense of the brand, your client department should have the same virtues and properties that you put into the design.

I planned to illustrate this article with relevant photos from the Apple Store. So: if the Apple Store staff devotes the same attention, energy and diligence to the desires of visitors as they give to the inexplicable policy of the company, according to which it is forbidden to take pictures inside the store, they will take a significant step towards creating exactly the impressions that customers have have in mind their designers.



Picture: © buytaert.net/album/san-francisco-2006/apple-store