The CVS Experience: GA wants us to pay attention

Whether we’re looking at an internet environment or the real world, human behavior tells us a lot about the environment and how to navigate it. Designers build a site hoping that users follow the route they set up, and hopefully allow for some freedom if they don’t. Stores set up their merchandise so that people will find what they need and want, but also hopefully stumble upon some other treats that they never knew they wanted right in that moment. This is why the grocery store gets reorganized every so often. Stores and sites have to balance clearly showing the customer the location of what they need while simultaneously encouraging exploration which may trigger other parts of their conscious to buy other goods not related to their original trip. Hence, why I go to CVS for sponges and come out with several more lipstick bullets ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

My closest CVS is huge by my standards spanning two floors. I suppose the overall area of each is a little smaller than most suburban drug stores, but it still surprised me. It takes new customers a moment to decide if they need to go upstairs or not, signage isn’t always easily noticed while trying to navigate the busy entranceway. Pharmacy and household goodies upstairs, grocery and personal hygiene downstairs. Cleaning supplies is usually not what you shop for at drug stores, so it makes sense upstairs out of the way. Who wants to ride the escalator up and down when you just have the munchies and want some Cheetos? Pharmacy makes sense up there as well. With limited space on the first floor and lines for checkout, there isn’t really much room for a pharmacy checkouts and lines involved for that too. The first floor would become nothing but people bunched up in line. Which wouldn’t be a line during busy times it would be chaos.

Unlike most suburban drug stores where food and snacks are located away from the doors, this one has them front and center with hygiene further back. In a dense urban area this CVS functions as a grocery for staples and lunches for many customers who don’t have time to walk further to an actual grocery store. They can run in and out for a snack. This is a good floor plan allowing for most users to get the things they need in a hurry.

Unfortunately there are some problems. The checkout process can be confusing to the user. Two rows of snacks make a meant to signify where the line should form, but often people just clump in the open area between the doors and the registers. There is quite a lot of space between where the line should form and the registers, creating a short walk when it’s your turn but leaving a lot of potential room for line cutters who are oblivious to the line within the snack rows.

Finally, the inside of the doors contain pull handles when it requires a push. As Don Norman talks about doors a lot, I’m sure we’re all hyper aware of their design now. I feel like a freshman psych student.