I managed to take a trip to Bluewater shopping centre in Kent whilst I was at home for the day. It was weird going after doing all this research on shopping centres and the devices they used to make us consume. It made me over think everything and to be honest made me enjoy the experience a little less... But! This was a good opportunity for me to take some photos of what I've been reading.
The thing with Bluewater is that I don't find the decor necessarily draws in shoppers or is based off a model of anything else. But the shape definitely does, as all my participants brought up the triangular layout of Bluewater being the reason for it's popularity:
Desire path! Each participant said that the triangle shape makes it far easier to navigate around the shopping centre opposed to a square or rectangle. This is like the desire path, these being new paths that form when people realise that it's quicker to cut corners. They usually form triangles and right angles, which happens to be the same design as Bluewater Shopping centre. I don't think this is a coincidence... I know that the triangles are also used because it wastes the least amount of space, as squares have a lot of wasted space in the middle opposed to triangles. But I think it is also because of the idea of the desire path, making the shopping experience more pleasant, in turn making people want to stay longer.
Hybrid Consumption was spotted by the entrance, a small arcade with overpriced games that you probably aren't going to win at! No relation to shopping, but of course improve the experience of going to Bluewater.
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