I spent some time at the Apple Store in Tyson's Corner Virginia recently. We came in with a simple mission: secure some Nano gear for a 15-year-old. While I'm a huge Mac fan, I must say that our experience was surprisingly underwhelming... In fact, it was bad, folks. While it's possible that the problems we encountered are isolated to this store, there are some good lessons for anyone managing the retail merchandising experience.

First, when we entered the store, it wasn't clear where we need to go. We didn't see signs anywhere. As we wandered the crowded store and browsed the products at the tables, we realized that accessories must be somewhere else. We meandered into the center of the store, where several rows of chest-high shelving held computing accessories. The problem was, there were no signs to indicate whether the items on each shelf were for IPOD, Mini, Nano.... So we were forced to look hard and long for what we needed. It was very crowded and traffic spilled into our aisles from what we later discovered was the "Genius Bar."

The accessory shelves, which started at about chest height and continued to the floor, were very cumbersome to navigate. First, they were dark grey, if I remember correctly. This, combined with the bright lighting and the low angle of the merchandise, created shadows that made it hard to read packaging from a distance. Second, the aisle between the shelving units was perhaps three feet wide. This made the action of bending down to look at the lower shelves quite awkward: In the squat position, a customer would block the aisle, and customers bending over often bumped into each other. Frankly, it was more full contact than I usually like to have in my retail shopping experience.

Ultimately, we couldn't find what we really wanted, so we grabbed a charger and decided to check out and escape the crowded store. Checking out was harder than anticipated. We searched for the checkout area, assuming that the elevated Genius Bar was it. At first glance, it looked like a checkout line: The positioning made sense. It was a raised counter with computer screens and employees in front of them. There was a line leading up to the counter, and employees in front of computer screens were helping people. However, after getting in the line with and watching the activities taking place, we soon realized (along with several other people) that this was not the checkout line.

After another lap of the store, we found the checkout area, which was a low counter at the front of the store. We stood there with three other customers for what seemed like an eternity. One customer audibly complained about the store's disorganization, stating she would rather not visit the store again. The couple in back of us nodded in agreement.

As we waited in line, I suddenly noticed the signs meant to label the various "zones" around the store—they were hanging in a tabular format from the ceiling. These were awkwardly above a normal line-of-sight for a store visitor. As I pointed this out to my friend, I observed that, from a design perspective, they also blended in with the ceiling, which made them almost indistinguishable. The woman next to me listened in and voiced adamant agreement with my comment. This was when I decided I had to write about this subject.

Collectively, my Apple Store experience really surprised me. I am a HUGE fan of Apple and was a loyal Mac user for more than a decade, and continue today to be a devoted IPOD user. I love the creativity embodied by Apple, the history of innovation, dedication to clean, ergonomic design and experience. However, we all learn from trial and error, and there are some real experience challenges here that I do hope Apple will carefully consider.

Wayfinding and Visual Cues

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

image of Leigh Duncan-Durst
Leigh Duncan Durst (leigh at livepath dot net) is a 20-year veteran of marketing, e-commerce, and business and the founder of Live Path (www.livepath.net).