Observation extended

After my previous blog regarding observation in Subway I have drawn conclusions as to why Subway has been designed the way it has following a discussion we had in a previous seminar. I thought to improve on any service design they need to invest in a bigger space so people can queue with more room in between them, but because the target market is those who want a quick lunch to take away, when queuing if they are closer together it will shorten the queue making it seem like they wont be waiting as long. This creates a quick turn over of customers.

The direction in which customers enter and leave the shop has already been set out for them. The queue barrier indicates that they queue from right following it round until the first order point. This is directly functional as no one can jump the queue as they will miss the first order point and cannot continue until this is done.

Due to the shop having very few tables this limits the amount of customers sitting in to eat their food. Customers feel uncomfortable when customers queue beside them and dodge in and out table to leave the shop. The design is to make the customers feel uncomfortable so the customers that wait outside for a table will then go in to get served. When they are sitting down the lighting is dingy so it’s unpleasant to sit under – another reason why customers leave quickly.

Having few tables in the shop also prevents it having a stereotype. You cannot judge class by a mixed queue of people. If there is some tables there is not enough people to start judging the place as a whole. At any one time there will be a variety of different ages and class. Due to it not being stereotypical for any one reason the public will not be judgmental making it a welcoming class for all ages, cultures and class.