Purpose – Several frameworks of retail store environment variables exist, but as shown by this paper, they are not particularly well-suited for supporting fashion store design processes. Thus, in order to provide an improved understanding of fashion store design, the purpose of this paper is to identify the most important store design variables, organise these variables into categories, understand the design constraints between categories, and determine the most influential stakeholders. Design/methodology/approach – Based on a discussion of existing literature, the paper defines a framework of store design variables and constraints between these. The framework is investigated through six case studies of fashion store design projects. Findings – Through a discussion of literature and empirical studies, the paper: identifies the most important store design variables, organises these variables into categories, provides an understanding of constraints between categories of variables, and identifies the most influential stakeholders. The paper demonstrates that the fashion store design task can be understood through a system perspective, implying that the store design task becomes a matter of defining a set of subsystems, while considering their mutual interdependencies. Research limitations/implications – The proposed framework may be used as a point of departure and a frame of reference for future research into fashion store design. Practical implications – The paper may support retail designers and retail managers in fashion store design processes by clarifying which store design variables to consider and providing an understanding of the constraints between them. Originality/value – The perspective on the fashion store design task offered by the proposed framework adds a layer of understanding to the way in which existing literature describes the challenges related to store design. The empirical studies of fashion store projects demonstrate that the described system perspective offers a useful way of organising fashion store designers’ experiences from design processes.

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Purpose Retail design concepts are complex designs meeting functional and aesthetic demands from various constraint generators. However, the literature on this topic is sparse and offers only little support for store designers to deal with such challenges. To address this issue, the purpose of this paper is to identify the most important constraint generators, investigating the types of constraints they generate, and providing guidelines for how to deal with constraint elicitation. Design/methodology/approach The three contributions mentioned above are developed through discussions of the literature and eight case studies of fashion store design projects. Findings The paper shows that the influence of the constraint generators decreases during the design process except for supplier-generated constraints, which increase in the final stages of the design process. The paper argues that constraints should be elicited close to their occurrence, and that doing so requires a solid understanding of relevant constraint generators. Research limitations/implications The paper provides a structured basis for further research and identifies areas warranting further study. Although, the paper’s focus is on fashion store design, the findings may, to some degree, be applicable to other types of store design projects. Practical implications The understandings provided by this paper may help designers to deal proactively with constraints, reducing the use of resources to alter design proposals. Originality/value The paper: defines the most important constraint generators from the perspective of retail store designers, clarifies the types of constraints they generate, and provides guidelines for how to deal with constraint elicitation.

This paper focuses on the creative process of designing products with aesthetic qualities. Within this creative process, the paper focuses on the kinds of argumentation that designers use to justify aesthetic qualities of design objects. A distinctive feature of such arguments is the highly subjective nature of aesthetic preferences. Therefore, instead of actual observable phenomena, the focus is always on someone's subjective opinion. To address this issue, a basis is taken in established argumentation models, which are transformed into the described context. The proposed classification's fit with the reality of industrial designers was investigated through a series of interviews with industrial designers. The studies illustrated that all the eight developed argument types are, in fact, applied in practice.

Retail designers often emphasize the importance of creating stores that consumers will find attractive. This paper challenges that commonly held view, presenting empirical results from a field experiment showing that a positive rating of a store interior does not affect the product rating to the degree expected. This paper proposes a method for measuring spillover effects, which ordinarily take place without conscious attention. The method was applied in an experiment where 50 shoppers were asked to rate six fashion products in three differently designed stores. Respondents were asked to rate stores and products from within the stores. Any discrepancy between the in-store ratings can be interpreted as the influence of the store design. Results indicate measurable spillover effects from store design to product preference. Surprisingly, however, only one of the three stores showed a significant correlation between the respondents’ highest product rating and store preference.