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MY DISSERTATION RESEARCH PROJECT

 

INTRODUCTION:

Within this section I will introduce my research topic which is part of my dissertation and leads on to my final university project. This will be documented within this website. I will below document the structure that I will follow and undertake in my research.

 

HYPOTHESIS:

Retail design could be better adapted to people with disabilities and the elderly consumer.

 

CONTEXT:

As I entered my final year I had a very strong desire to look more deeply at Retail Design. It's a subject that I have always been very much interested in. Having worked within the retail environment since the tender age of sixteen I have been fortunate to experience retail through the eyes of a consumer, colleague and now a designer.  Along the way I have seen how retail has grown over the years, how trends have appeared and how it affects both the consumer and the colleague. In-turn this has led my passion for this sector to grow with it and flourish. 

 

Seeing design in a specific sector and having first hand contact with the environment through working extensive hours, I was able to see how retail design has over the years advanced, however I was also able to see the omissions it made and how it limited those who had disabilities. 

 

Retail stores are always designed with those who are mobile and able in mind. After a store design has been mapped out, Part M of the building regulations which features regulations that comply with the Disability Discrimination Act is looked at and modifications are made to the design to suit.

 

Disability is a growing factor and it should be placed at the forefront of our minds when designing public spaces. It should be a challenge that as designers we fight as opposed to a set of regulations that we follow.

 

What I am specifically looking at for my thesis is how retail design could be better adapted to those who have a disability and how it could be a more pleasing experience?  How retail and disability can relate to one another and complement each other rather than being an oversight, and whether retail can affect and improve how we deal with designing for disabled people or can disabilities influence how retail design is approached? 

 

This blog is a collation of my research, understanding and progress

 

AIMS:

  • To understand the effects retail design on the economy

  • To collate and understand the main range of factors affecting retail design

  • To understand Part M of the building regulations, this features regulations that comply with the Disability Discrimination Act.

  • To understand the limitations disabled and elderly people face within retail design.

  • To understand how specialist centres for the disabled and elderly overcome the “barriers” when designing spaces.

 

 

 

OBJECTIVES:

  • Interview people with disabilities or disabled children /family members as well as the elderly to see what their struggles are when they go shopping.

  • Visit current retail facilities such as shopping centres and department stores to see if they buildings comply with part M of the Building Regulations

  • Research into the types of factors affecting retail design, and the psychology behind why retail is and has developed into what it is today, i.e – colour, way finding, stakeholders and trends to see how they are inclusive or non inclusive of disability.

  • Research history and progression of retail design for the disabled and elderly

  • Conduct a questionnaire to see why people shop and how they feel retail could be better adapted to the disabled and elderly

  • Speak to professionals in the field of design and architectural technologists to understand their view point on this subject and whether they have any suggestions.

 

 

METHODOLOGY:

The primary research will involve separate interviews with the following:

  • A specialist designer within the retail design sector

  • An architectural technologist who understands building regulation

  • A family friend who has a disabled daughter

  • A family friend who has a autistic daughter

  • An elderly person and their carer

 

Secondary research will also be collated in:

  • The history and evolution of retail design

  • The history and evolution of designing retail for the disabled and elderly

  • The strategy used to create therapeutic design.

  • Precedent retail shopping centres and department stores and compare and contrast approaches to design of specialist schools for the disabled.

 

Collectively, this approach will allow groundwork of evidence to in order to build my own analysis and conclusion from.

 

Please refer to the 'Bibliography'  section for the list of sources used within this dissertation research project. 

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