1. Please introduce yourself, your role in the DRS and your research.
Hi, My name is Katelijn Quartier and I am an Associate Professor in retail design at the Faculty of Architecture and Arts of Hasselt University, where I am also the academic director of the Retail Design Lab knowledge center. I and the Lab are researching what the store of tomorrow should look like, what the role of design and other spatial cues plays in it, and what the role of the physical store should be as such. We focus on topics such as experience and sustainability.
Starting from scientific insights, I advise Belgian and international stores and retail chains to improve their store experience. I wrote my first very own book The big book of retail design, which tels you everything you need to know to design an good store.
I became involved with the DRS at the start of my PhD in 2006. I have participated in many of the DRS conferences since then and have been an active member since 2020 when we launched our SIG designing retail and service futures.
2. Could you please give an introduction to your SIG, any recent events/outcomes and any upcoming events you’d like to share?
With the SIG we strive to get a better understanding of the value of design in the commercial sector, including closely linked disciplines, such as branding, marketing, strategic design, design management and consumer psychology. Design and the value of it has been a subject of study for many years and from many different disciplines (ranging from product design to marketing, business economics, service design, management, environmental psychology, (interior)architecture, etc), but in a rather fragmented way, and with each their own research methods. Recent developments, that have been accelerated by the pandemic, show that in practice services are becoming a part of retail and vice versa. It all starts from the need of the consumer and to be able to better serve him/her. It is only natural that the research world follows this trend. So, there is a need to bring these disciplines and related knowledge and insights together to calibrate terms and meanings, to understand each other and to work together.
We organise an event every year. In between the DRS conferences we organise a colloquium with a specific theme. The first time we organized the colloquium in Londen (UAL) on the experiential theme. In 2025 we will organize our second colloquium, in Milan this time (Politecnico di Milano) on sustainability. Another event that we organise yearly is the online and free Retail Design Fest for students all over the world. We invite partitioners and academics to speak about retail design. Last year it was hosted and broadcasted from by Hasselt University and next academic year Boston University will host and broadcast it. 250 Students took part in the event last year. And last but not least, we try to have a special track at the DRS conference.
3. What are some of the benefits of being involved in the DRS through a SIG? How can those who are interested in becoming part of your SIG learn more?
Since the SIG's start-up, our network has only grown. We started with a team of senior researchers but soon some PhD students joined us. Now, at every event we organise, we notice that our network is growing. We have a newsletter and we meet online every two months to network and share knowledge. We are a young, dynamic SIG that is also still a bit searching for how we can share more knowledge apart from our events.
There are different ways to be part of our SIG. Of course, you can be an active member by organising events as a leader or sitting on the scientifc committee. Most of our participants attend our bi-monthly meetings. Besides, it is also just nice to have a network of like-minded people.
DRS Digital Library Picks
As a first paper out of the DRS digital library I chose “Interaction design and service design: Expanding a comparison of design disciplines., Nordes 2007: Design Inquiries, 27-30 May, University of Arts, Craft, and Design, Stockholm, Sweden, by Stefan Holmlid.” I chose this paper because this is also a first attempt to compare two disciplines, interaction design and service design, and look for common ground. With our SIG, we also want to bridge different design disciplines: retail design, service design and hospitality design. In practice, these dsiciplines overlap but not really in research.
A second paper comes from Guida and Finesso: The Brand as a Place. For a Model Interpreting Identity in the Digital Age., in De Sainz Molestina, D., Galluzzo, L., Rizzo, F., Spallazzo, D. (eds.), IASDR 2023: Life-Changing Design, 9-13 October, Milan, Italy. This paper explores brands and spaces. When we buy items or use services or come into contact with any expression of a brand, we come into contact with its being. Whether these are points of sale, events, websites, packaging and products, touchpoints help the consumer enter the world of the brand and experience it. It charges that brands should become worlds that people like to interact with, that they come to love. That, I think, is the future of brands.
Thirdly, “Retail Design and Sensory Experience: Design Inquiry of Complex Reality, in Durling, D., Bousbaci, R., Chen, L, Gauthier, P., Poldma, T., Roworth-Stokes, S. and Stolterman, E (eds.), Design and Complexity - DRS International Conference 2010, 7-9 July, Montreal, Canada” is chosen. The key factors found are (1) visual cues are most evident in retail interiors; (2) non-visual stimulations are evident in design narratives revealing emotional domains; (3) interior detailing appear to impact all senses. This indicates what to think about in the future. We are sensory beings and responding to this deeply enriches our experience.
As a fourth paper selected is “Design for Future Retailing: an investigation into the changing status of city-basedretailers in the UK, in Storni, C., Leahy, K., McMahon, M., Lloyd, P. and Bohemia, E. (eds.), Design as a catalyst for change - DRS International Conference 2018, 25-28 June, Limerick, Ireland, by Huang and Hands.” This paper shows the transforming consumer behaviour patterns of today and links these with city lifestyle transformations. In other words, retail is the mirror of society, making it a very dynamic discipline.
A last paper that reflect current trends is the paper “Integrating Sustainability Literacy into Design Education, in Lloyd, P. and Bohemia, E. (eds.), Future Focused Thinking - DRS International Conference 2016, 27 - 30 June, Brighton, United Kingdom, by Quam.” The papers states that sustainability should universally be integrated into design education programs and their curricula. I fully agree with this. We need our future designer to be aware of and knowledgeable about how to take better care of our planet and everything living on it. Within our SIG we put extra attention to this topic. It will also be the theme of our next colloquium.