Identification of consumer routes in sensory tracking logs of a complex shopping mall environment

Abstract

ABSTRACT Smart use of technologies commonly used in buildings have the potential to make consumer movement more efficient and pleasing in large shopping malls, which are notoriously difficult to design from the perspective of wayfinding. Centrally located shopping malls integrate private and public spaces as well as connecting to urban transport systems, making rationales for movement difficult to identify. This article demonstrates how smart non-invasive positioning technologies can be used to identify consumer routes in a shopping mall and connect various shopping facilities with different forms of transport. Positioning data from a large downtown shopping mall in Helsinki, Finland is processed and visualised as networks. Findings show that it is useful to consider collective and abstract outcomes of consumer wayfinding techniques when making sense of detailed positioning logs. This research design can be applied when examining and visualising consumer movement patterns recorded with a number of widely available building monitoring systems.