1. Social Human Factors: sudden group observation 3.27.08
The Shops at North Bridge
Jung • Lim • Palit • Stirling • Xu
Introduction and overall impressions
Our group spent some time observing at The Shops at North Bridge,
an upscale indoor mall on Michigan Avenue. The Mall is anchored by
Nordstrom at the south end. There are 4 floors of high end stores,
with a food court on the top floor. It is a very clean and safe place to
be. The restaurants in the food court are not your typical mall restau-
rants. They are equally as upscale in food offerings and price. The day
we visited the weather was wet, cold with rain that was turning to
snow. Due to the weather and the fact that it was “spring break” for
many schools, there happened to be many people shopping and wan-
dering around the mall.
Space, environment, ambience
Among many other aspects of the environmental observations, the
only thing that I kept in mind was how the space and environment in-
fluences the social interactions. Despite the fact that it was mid day in
middle of week, there was quite a variety of people in the mall. Mainly
family, singles, middle aged women gossiping, security guards, travel-
ers (there was a hotel within the building), and I was amazed at the
number of mall employees. It was an extremely ample space; especially
the front entrance from Michigan Avenue, the ceiling was massively tall,
as high as the entire four story building. The space was quite large, not
huge but not too small compared to the entire capacity of the shop-
ping mall. The space was well designed. A bridge connects Nordstrom
to the shopping mall. In the atrium area, the large windows overlooked
Rush Street with street lights and traffic signals at eye level.

2. Social Human Factors: sudden group observation 3.27.08
The Shops at North Bridge
Jung • Lim • Palit • Stirling • Xu
Activities Sofa, Chairs, Tables Hall Way
There were no planned or formal activities (such as a planned event,
holiday fashion show or in store promotions) going on at the mall the
day we observed. The activities people were participating in were the
normal daily activities that take place at a shopping mall. There were
Windows
shoppers, of course, who were buying things and taking them home
in shopping bags. There were also the browsers, who seemed to be
content to walk around looking at the merchandise without buying
anything. People shopped, browsed, drank coffee and ate lunch.
Espresso Bar
Social Interactions Trash Can
The social activity level in the mall was unusually high the day we ob-
served due to the bad weather and also because this happened to be
“spring break” for many schools. Most of the activity was happening at
the Lego store. The store encourages play and has large open bins of
colorful legos to choose from. Entire families were involved in build-
ing with legos. Ethel’s chocolate shop also had several small groups Reading Chatting Using the computer
who were sitting and talking in comfortable chairs, while sipping hot
chocolate or sampling chocolates. The other busy area was the food
court. As lunchtime approached there were more families and couples
buying food and then sitting down for lunch at the many tables on the
top floor. On the first floor in the atrium/cafe area next to Nordstrom
the activity level was considerably calmer. People were drinking coffee
alone at tables or with one other person, several visitors were reading
a book or the newspaper or just sitting quietly. Overall, the visitors in
the mall were a diverse bunch: tourists, families and couples. As it got
closer to lunch hour, business people and office workers came to the
mall to shop or eat lunch, often in groups.

3. “A Day in the Life”
Scattered in the mall are several kiosks where independent products
are sold. I observed a young black man, a salesperson for “Proactive”, a
skin care product. He sat on a chair at the end of the kiosk, working
on his laptop computer. While I was observing he talked to a mother
and daughter who approached the kiosk. He also spent his time ar-
ranging the merchandise in the display. He talked on his cell phone and
wrote on a clipboard. From time to time he got up and walked around
the kiosk. The salesperson left the kiosk for a few minutes to speak to
a man who works in the mall. When he wasn’t talking to customers he
fingered his goatee and sat for lengths of time. Occasionally he opened
a file cabinet under the kiosk.
Artifacts
We observed artifacts in the mall: the display of shops, especially the
mannequins that could be found in many stores. Their purpose is to
display the clothes the shop is selling. People walking by stopped in
front of these mannequins. When the displays catch peoples’s atten-
tion, they might go inside the shop. The signage was also an artifact in
the mall. It displays the name of the shop with the color, font and logo
of the store. It is the store’s brand. I observed some people reading
the signage for a few seconds, then enter the shop. I also noticed that
some people did not even notice the signage. This seemed not to be
an effective artifact. Other interesting artifacts were the round tables
and chairs near the cafe where people were sitting and drinking coffee.
The chairs could be moved and some people moved them to vary the
layout.