I was conducting research into successful zoning for my ‘Design Realisation’ project when I came across an article written by Fast Company called ‘How to Design Happiness’. I was instantly intrigued due to the title repeating itself in my mind – how do you actually design happiness?
After reading the article, I was able to summarise that happiness is down to how an individual perceives a space and in no way, can I please everybody at one given time. There are, however, various factors that should be considered when designing a space and I made a note of these and used them to create my own design in my Chocolate Shop for Choc Affair.
Anticipation and memory – a person anticipates what their experience in a place will be and their memory of it can be altered depending if they are a realist, optimist or pessimist and whether it matches their expectations. The idea is to create a unique design that draws a person in. The article suggests that I should analyse competitors and see what attracts customers to their store, this may be with techniques other than advertisements. I followed through with this in my research by conducting a survey for Huddersfield locals to fill out, with a varying age range. From this I was able to conclude that free samples and tasters of chocolate would attract customers as it draws them in, allowing them to assess the quality of the product whilst discovering the tranquillity of the store.
Speaking of tranquillity, the article also suggests “nature knows happiness best” (Fast Company, 2016) which is one of the elements I consistently consider when creating a new design scheme. Nature was here before the human race and it will remain afterwards. A constant. Change can make people uncertain so including an aspect of nature in a design, can have a calming effect. I decided to make a focal point out of the living plants in my work, using them to divide a space without making zones feel completely isolated.
Another factor that this article discusses is ‘surprise’. I designed an element of surprise within my Chocolate Shop project by creating dispensers solely for customisable flavoured hot chocolates. This allows customers to have a say in how they want their drink made and can either stay safe or go wild with flavour, possibly having an impact on another person’s decisions, therefore creating another type of interaction.
The final factor that this article focuses on is ‘communication’ and how being in an environment that encourages interaction can help build a community. With every single one of my designs, I want people to acknowledge it and want to return, so I focus on how I can attract new attention whilst pleasing revisiting customers; building a sort of family. “It’s all about creating relationships with people so that you’re not just walking out anonymously to you next venture in life” (Fast Company, 2016) leads on from this. Encouraging unpredictable relationships to be formed in a space that can then hold that memory, meaning the design has actually influenced happiness.
References
Fast Company. (2016). How to Design Happiness. Retrieved from https://www.fastcompany.com/3058237/how-to-design-happiness
Fast Company. (2016). How to Design Happiness [Online image]. Retrieved from https://www.fastcompany.com/3058237/how-to-design-happiness
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