Shape has a powerful impact on the way people perceive environments, other people as well as their behaviour and decision making.
For instance, circles are used to suggest harmony and friendliness as they are a signal of warmth while hard angles are used to suggest strength and toughness.
An interesting study in the Journal of Business Research has discovered that physical objects in service-based businesses affect customer satisfaction, depending on how crowded the space is.
More specifically, the study found out that angular shapes suggest competence to customers and, when the business is busy, they also increase customers’ level of satisfaction. Instead, circles suggest friendliness and warmth and customers’ level of satisfaction increases when the business is not crowded.
Why does this happen?
The study explains that when a business is not busy, the circular shapes enhance customers’ attention to the warmth and friendliness of the server while when it is busy, the angular shapes influence customers to examine the server’s competence.
Considering how the design of the space changes depending on how crowded it is, the time of the day or any other unique to the brand condition is what can really make a huge difference to the overall customer experience.
Moldable, adjustable and interactive spatial design is not new, but it is certainly going to become more common.
Shapes impact Decision Making
By Alice Micheletti
A recent study has discovered that the shape of physical objects in service-based businesses affect customer satisfaction and decision making.
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