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Architectural design and consumer experience: an investigation of shopping

malls throughout the design process

Article in Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics · January 2021

DOI: 10.1108/APJML-06-2020-0408

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Architectural design and consumer Architectural

design and
experience: an investigation of consumer
experience
shopping malls throughout the
design process
Ye Yuan Received 9 June 2020
Revised 4 September 2020
School of Architecture, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China and 21 December 2020
Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore Accepted 18 January 2021

Gang Liu and Rui Dang

School of Architecture, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China
Stephen Siu Yu Lau
Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore, Singapore,
Singapore, and
Guanhua Qu
School of Architecture, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China

Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the design elements of environmental features that affect
consumer experience in shopping malls and develop a comprehensive understanding of the relationship
between architectural design and consumer experience.
Design/methodology/approach – Through the systematic literature review, 13 design elements were
obtained and then verified through interviews of 30 professional designers. The obtained elements were made
into a questionnaire to collect data across China from 1,016 consumers of different groups. Data were analyzed
using cluster analysis, principal component analysis and difference analysis.
Findings – The results show that design elements that influence consumer experience in shopping malls are a
four-dimensional construct: visual atmosphere, physical environment comfort, space structure and business
planning, among which space structure and business planning play a larger role in the consumer experience.
In addition, the perception differences of consumers for those elements are significant due to the individual
differences.
Originality/value – This paper comprehensively investigates the architectural design elements affecting
consumer experience in the Chinese mall context. Moreover, it provides unique insights about the relationship
between architectural design and consumer experience by exploring the categories, weights and perception
differences of those elements.
Keywords Shopping mall, Consumer experience, Architectural design, Design elements,
Shopping environment
Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction
With the advent of the experience economy era, consumers are no longer limited to obtaining
goods and services but focus more on seeking unique and memorable experiences
(Anselmsson, 2016; Calvo-Porral and L
evy-Mang
ın, 2018; Ni and Ishii, 2019). In this context,
to succeed in the highly competitive environment, shopping malls must focus more on the
consumer experience, which holistically includes individuals’ cognitive, affective, social and
Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing
Funding: This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. and Logistics
2016YFC0700200); and the Program of Introducing Talents of Discipline to Universities (Grant No. © Emerald Publishing Limited
1355-5855
B13011). DOI 10.1108/APJML-06-2020-0408
APJML physical reactions to the shopping environment (Verhoef et al., 2009). The design of the
shopping environment has been well recognized among researchers that can influence
consumers both behaviorally and psychologically (Baker et al., 2002; Kwon et al., 2016).
Therefore, creating an appealing shopping environment is crucial in the architectural design
of shopping malls.
Since the emergence of shopping malls, mall culture has played a significant role in
people’s lifestyles (Bloch et al., 1994). Although shopping malls have proliferated over the last
two decades in China, nearly 50% of the malls face losses (CBRE, 2017). One of the main
reasons for this failure is the architectural design fails to build the excitement in consumers
(Chandler, 1995). Due to the different historical, cultural, social and economic background,
there is a need to use the evidence from China to gain a greater understanding of the consumer
experience and provide guidance for the designers there.
A good design is to provide solutions to meet consumers’ wants, needs and aspirations
(Keates and Clarkson, 2003). However, as far as we could determine, little research has
comprehensively addressed the issue of what factors affect one’s overall shopping experience
from the design perspective, especially in the mall context. On the one hand, modern
consumer preferences have shifted from traditional retail consumption to mall consumption
(Çakmak and Yilmaz, 2018). As the environment is more complex and diverse in shopping
malls, some unique design elements were ignored by the existing research on the traditional
retail environment (Baker et al., 2002; Evangelista et al., 2020; Garaus, 2017; Jang et al., 2018;
Turley and Milliman, 2000). On the other hand, when it comes to the dimensions of consumer
experience in shopping malls (Anselmsson, 2016; Calvo-Porral and L
evy-Mang
ın, 2018;
El Hedhli et al., 2013; Hui et al., 2016), none of the existing literature was conducted from the
perspective of architectural design, resulting in the final proposed constructions containing
elements that are not design related. Although some of the marketing scholars have
considered the design of shopping environment, they preferred to summarize these factors as
a whole, such as design (Raajpoot et al., 2008), atmosphere (Verhoef et al., 2009; Tandon et al.,
2016), aesthetic (Chi and Chen, 2020) and architecture style (Hui et al., 2016) without
explicating their constructions and identifying the relationship among them. Thus, designers
know little about the specific characteristics of environmental design in shopping malls, nor
do they understand the corresponding influences on consumer experience.
In addition, due to the differences in shopping motivations and demographics,
contemporary research recommends developing targeted marketing strategies for different
consumers (Kalia, 2017). Although a recent number of studies have examined the differences
of Chinese consumers in genders (Parker and Wenyu, 2019), ages (Yu and Rahman, 2018),
cities (Davis, 2013; Chu et al., 2015) and ethics (Chen et al., 2019; Javed et al., 2019), few have
considered how these characteristics associate with the architectural design of shopping
malls. Therefore, the limited understanding of Chinese consumer preferences represents
another critical limitation in designing the buying environments. More importantly, the
studies mentioned earlier have only applied a consumer perspective. However, for the
architectural design, the perception differences between ordinary consumers and designers
have yet to be given the critical insight they require. If designers fail to understand such
differences, they will continue to make design mistakes according to their rules of thumb,
which may lead to the mall failures as before.
Given the gap of scientific knowledge on the relationship between architectural design
and consumer experience in the Chinese mall context, and taking into account the vital role of
demographics in developing targeted design strategies, this study aims to identify the design
elements of environmental features that affect consumer experience in shopping malls and
develop a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between architectural design and
consumer experience. Specifically, using data from interviews across China, we try to answer
the following questions: (1) What affects consumer experience in the shopping environment
of Chinese mall context from the design perspective? (2) What is the relationship between Architectural
architectural design and consumer experience? (3) And what is the perception difference design and
among different groups of consumers, and furthermore, what is that difference between
common consumers and designers?
consumer
To address the above limitations and questions, we proceed by systematically reviewing experience
the extant literature to explore the constructions of environmental features. The obtained
elements are then verified through interviews of professional designers and developed into a
questionnaire to collect data across China. In the subsequent section, data analysis is
conducted to develop the understanding of relationship between architectural design and
consumer experience, followed by discussions of theoretical and practical contributions for
marketers and designers.

2. Item generation through literature review

As discussed previously, the design of a shopping environment can influence consumers,
both behaviorally and psychologically. Specifically, environmental design can affect
consumer behaviors including patronage (Garaus, 2017), money or time spent
(van Rompay et al., 2012) and purchase intentions (Turley and Milliman, 2000). The
influence of psychological dimensions includes attitudes (Yoo et al., 1998), loyalty (El Hedhli
et al., 2013), comfort (Ainsworth and Foster, 2017) and satisfactory (Garaus, 2017).
Given the significance of the shopping environment, some prior studies have tried to
explore the constructions of environmental features in the mall context. An early and widely
cited attempt was made by Bellenger et al. (1977) to determine the major factors by the supply
of related services, the variety of retailers and the convenience. Afterward, numerous
different typologies were stimulated and proposed. Raajpoot et al. (2008) identified five mall
characteristics as employee behaviors, design, product assortment, customer compatibility
and accessibility. El Hedhli et al. (2013) proposed six variables including convenience,
functionality, safety, leisure atmospherics and self-identification. Anselmsson (2016) reported
seven factors as access, retail mix, atmosphere, service, refreshments, promotion and
entertainment. Calvo-Porral and L
evy-Mang
ın (2018) reported five pull factors as
convenience, tenant mix, internal environment, leisure mix and communication and
promotions. Despite extensive efforts by similar studies (Chi and Chen, 2020; Hui et al.,
2016; Verhoef et al., 2009), few have comprehensively considered the shopping environment
from the perspective of architectural design. Meanwhile, the design factors (i.e. design,
atmosphere, aesthetic, internal environment) are not systematically explicated.
To fill this void, this study conducted a systematic literature review to identify those
elements throughout the architectural design process (i.e. business planning, building design
and operation and management) (Zhang, 2015). In the light of 80% of purchase decisions
being made when consumers are right inside the building (Ebster, 2011), the architectural
design referred to in this paper is mainly for the design related to interior features. As
different designers are responsible for different design tasks, the literature review is
operationalized by examining the design contents of relevant designers, including architects,
interior designers and equipment engineers.

2.1 Design contents of architects

As the leader of architectural design, architects’ work contents generally run through the
entire design process and include theme focus, merchandise variety, space ratio, space
visibility, space accessibility and space identifiability.
After receiving the building site, a reasonable theme should first be determined, and all the
design elements should be then carried out around it and become a part of it (McGoun et al.,
2003). Themes give the shopping mall a precise and unique meaning, resulting in higher
APJML levels of differentiation, interaction, immersion, satisfaction, positive brand attitudes and
brand loyalty (Foster and McLelland, 2015).
Afterward, developers need to plan for investment based on the established theme, and
architects need to provide corresponding spaces for the selected tenants. Studies have shown
that merchandise variety can determine the success of a shopping mall by influencing mall
selection (Robertson and Greenberg, 1977), shopping frequency (Stoltman et al., 1991) and
mall image (Finn and Louviere, 1996). Different types of merchandise require different spaces
due to the function demands, so it is the key point of store design at this stage to provide a
reasonable space ratio (width, depth and ceiling height) (Beyard et al., 1999). In general,
consumers enjoy spacious and roomy shopping environment without too much hustle and
bustle (Davis, 2013). Moreover, research indicates that the space ratio even influences
consumer behaviors. For example, in a jewelry store, lower ceiling heights could make
consumers focus more on the specifics of products (Meyers-Levy and Zhu, 2007).
After the determination of required tenant spaces, it is necessary to design the overall
space layout, including the location arrangement of all stores and connections of them
through the circulation layout (Turley and Milliman, 2000). The choice of store location
directly affects the likelihood of customers’ patronage, which further influences the interests
of retailers (van der Waerden et al., 1998). In addition, the forms of circulation layout can
influence space attributes of visibility, accessibility and identifiability, all of which directly
relate to the consumer experience (Aghazadeh, 2005; Baker et al., 2002). Clearly visible
circulation layout can provide consumers with the best and easiest way to roam in the
building, thereby improving their navigational fluency (Otterbring et al., 2016). Thus, it is
essential to ensure a good visibility and convenient accessibility for stores and merchandise
through the circulation layout. Only in this way can the merchandise be purchased (Ebster,
2011). Additionally, due to the scale expansion and complexity increment of shopping malls,
the circulation layout should also consider consumers’ wayfinding and orientation (Dogu and
Erkip, 2000), which, in turn, affect the space accessibility and identifiability.

2.2 Design contents of interior designers

In the shopping process, consumers pay attention to the interior design consciously or
unconsciously. Hence, after completing the space design, interior designers need to make the
following decorations, such as space color, material, landmark and advertisement, all of
which contribute to the attractiveness of shopping environment (Andreu et al., 2006).
The choice of space color can affect consumers’ perception (Eiseman, 2000) and decision-
making (Chebat and Morrin, 2007), and studies have shown that the effects of different colors
are different. For example, cool color tones have more positive effects than warm ones
(Bellizzi and Hite, 1992). The determination of space color is related to material choices, which
also transmit information to consumers. For example, the use of wood is associated with
nature (Karana et al., 2009). In addition, both color and material selections determine the
visual complexity of shopping environment (Heaps and Handel, 1999), and it is thus better to
make appropriate selections of color and material to reduce the interior complexity (Orth and
Wirtz, 2014).
To enrich the interior spaces, landmarks are always adopted to make the shopping
process more pleasurable (Golledge, 2003). Findings indicate that landmarks can influence
consumers’ liking for stores and their re-patronage intentions (Mower et al., 2012). Moreover,
research suggests that consumers may use landmarks as important indicators of road choice
(May et al., 2003) and even be attracted to corresponding areas by landmarks, which, in turn,
induce further exploration of the building and increase their time spent and consumption rate
(Ebster, 2011).
Besides landmarks in the public space, stores also need focus points, and the advertisement
is an effective way. Research indicates that when consumers have a positive attitude toward
advertisement, this attitude will turn into a preference for the brand and store loyalty (Park Architectural
et al., 2015). Moreover, good advertisement designs can capture consumers’ attentions (Lange design and
et al., 2016) and influence both their cognitions and emotions (Dennis et al., 2010).
consumer
2.3 Design contents of equipment engineers experience
After the completion of interior decorations, it is necessary for equipment engineers to match
reasonable facilities for the building and create a comfortable shopping ambience. Extensive
literature has examined the substantial effects of shopping ambience on consumers’
enjoyment, time spent and re-patronage intentions (Andreu et al., 2006; Turley and Milliman,
2000). Ambience is conceptualized as temperature, lighting, noise, music and scent (Bellizzi
and Hite, 1992). Among them, scent is a strategy after the completion of design work,
therefore has nothing to do with the architectural design.
In all studies of the shopping ambience, research on the thermal environment is the
earliest, and corresponding findings reveal that comfortable thermal environment can
enhance the consumer experience and attractiveness of shopping malls (Kwok et al., 2017;
Li et al., 2018). Light environment is also an effective ambient stimulus and is utilized to
emphasize the store’s character and permit accurate examination of the features and qualities
of merchandise (DiLaura and IESNA, 2011). Studies suggest that lighting design can affect
consumers’ emotion, cognition, behavior and impression (Reynolds-McIlnay et al., 2017).
Moreover, sound is another important sensory mode for consumers to retrieve the external
information, and many researchers have explored the influence of music tempo, volume,
style, complexity and familiarity on consumers’ responses (Kuribayashi and Nittono, 2015;
Septianto, 2016) and store income (Areni, 2003). Furthermore, research indicates that the
sound sensory can be interlocked with other sensory systems to influence consumers’
decision-making, attitudes and behaviors (Togawa et al., 2019). Afterward, in the operation
and management stage, it is still essential for equipment engineers to properly operate the
system and ensure the indoor ambience in a comfortable state.
Overall, Table 1 illustrates 13 design elements operationalized through the above
literature review. However, studies mentioned above are detailed research on some specific
elements. There is a lack of a holistic view on the relationship among them, and, moreover,
their specific effects on the consumer experience are still unclear.

3. Method
3.1 Questionnaire design
This study used questionnaire research to investigate the relationship between design
elements and consumer experience. A 13-item questionnaire was developed based on the
obtained elements, and the measurements were recorded using a 7-point Likert scale, with
end-points ranging from 1 5 strongly disagree to 7 5 strongly agree. Moreover, the survey
included items capturing respondents’ demographic characteristics, including gender, age,
city level, education level and occupation. Among them, the occupation distinguished
common consumers and designers to understand the perception differences between them
and provide insights for designers.
As the elements are design contents of architects, interior designers and equipment
engineers, the questionnaire was thoroughly examined by 30 professional designers who
have worked for more than five years in those three professions to ensure the content/face
validity. The examination aimed to provide support for the questionnaire appropriacy and
ensure the items are representative of each scale’s domain. Furthermore, the integrity,
suitability and word clarity of these elements were checked according to their practice
experience. Eventually, the questionnaire design was finalized including 13 items in total: two
items in the business planning stage, eight items in the building design stage and three items
in the operation and management stage.
APJML Design
Design stage Designers parameters Related research

Business planning Architect Theme focus McGoun et al. (2003), Foster and McLelland
(2015)
Merchandise Finn and Louviere (1996), Robertson and
variety Greenberg (1977), Stoltman et al. (1991)
Building design Space ratio Davis (2013), Meyers-Levy and Zhu (2007)
Space visibility Ebster (2011), Otterbring et al. (2016)
Space Ebster (2011)
accessibility
Space Dogu and Erkip (2000)
identifiability
Interior Space color Bellizzi and Hite (1992), Chebat and Morrin
designer (2007), Eiseman (2000)
Space material Heap and Handel (1999), Karana et al. (2009),
Orth and Wirtz (2014)
Landmark Ebster (2011), Golledge (2003), Mower et al.
(2012)
Advertisement Dennis et al. (2010), Lange et al. (2016), Park
et al. (2015)
Table 1. Operation and Equipment Thermal comfort Kwok et al. (2017), Li et al. (2018)
Summary of the 13 management engineer Light comfort DiLaura and IESNA (2011), Reynolds-McIlnay
obtained design et al. (2017)
elements through Acoustic comfort Areni (2003), Kuribayashi and Nittono (2015),
literature review Septianto (2016), Togawa et al. (2019)

3.2 Data collection

To guarantee the heterogeneity of respondents, we recruited volunteers across China as our
staff to distribute the questionnaire in various cities. The survey was approached by using
an intercept method in densely populated areas, and the choice of locations also included
some blocks where designer’s offices were located. To be eligible to complete the survey, the
selected respondents needed to have frequently visited more than two shopping malls. In
the survey process, respondents were prompted by the following statement: “When I am
shopping or spending leisure time in shopping malls, this design element affects my
experience.” Then, they were presented with the 7-point scale involving the 13 elements.
Participants need to recall and imagine themselves back in the shopping environment to
complete the questionnaire. The utilization of this method serves to not limiting
respondents’ evaluations to some specific presentations of one shopping mall, but the
elements themselves.
In an effort to determine a reasonable proportion of respondents, we first conducted a pre-
survey to know the actual situation of consumer composition. Joy-City, one famous shopping
mall in Tianjin, China, was selected to make the statistics on gender and age of all consumers.
The pre-survey was continued for one week (from July 23, 2018, to July 29, 2018) to calculate
the number of consumers entering the building in the peak shopping hour (18:00–19:00 p.m.).
According to the statistics, it was found the proportion of male to female in shopping malls
was 0.85, and the proportion of consumers in different age groups was <18:19–25:26–35:36–
50:>50 5 1:10:8:2:1. Therefore, in the questionnaire survey process, the proportion of
respondents was controlled the same with the ratio obtained from the pre-survey, ensuring
the collected data reflect the actual situation of shopping malls. The final survey lasted for ten
days (from September 11, 2018, to September 21, 2018), and a total of 1,016 questionnaires
were collected from all over China.
3.3 Sample characteristics Architectural
For all of the 1,016 responses, 949 valid questionnaires were finally obtained after screening design and
the missing values of incomplete responses (see Table 2 for the demographic profile). Among
them, there were 437 males and 512 females, and their ratio was the same as the pre-survey
consumer
result; the ratio of respondents in different age groups was <18:19–25:26–35:36– experience
50:>50 5 1:11.75:9:2.13:1.23, which was also approximately equal to the result of pre-survey.
Two other tests, reliability and validity assessments, were done to assess the collected
data by using SPSS 23.0. The reliability assessment was evaluated according to the value of
Cronbach’s alpha. Its value in this survey is 0.886, exceeding the threshold of 0.7, which
indicates the internal consistency and satisfies the reliability test. For the validity
assessment, a principal component analysis was performed. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin
(KMO) measure of sampling adequacy and Bartlett’s test of sphericity were conducted for the
evaluation. The result of KMO is 0.909, and taking a 95% level of significance, α 5 0.05, the
p-value (Sig.) of 0.000 < 0.05, indicating an adequate sample and eligibility for the factor
analysis.

4. Results
4.1 Characteristics of data distribution
Table 3 presents the respondents’ evaluation distributions of 13 elements on the 7-point scale.
By observing the distribution characteristics, these elements could be divided into two
categories: the evaluation distributions of design elements in the first category (i.e. E2, E4, E5,
E6, E11, E12 and E13) gradually increase from point 1 (strongly disagree) to point 7 (strongly
agree), which indicates that consumers evaluate that these elements significantly affect their
shopping experience; the evaluations of design elements in the second category (i.e. E1, E3,

Variable No. of respondents %

Gender
Female 437 46.05
Male 512 53.95
Age
<18 34 3.58
18–25 448 47.21
26–35 337 35.51
36–50 83 8.75
>50 47 4.95
City level
Tier-I city 217 22.87
Tier-II city 455 47.94
Tier-III city 139 14.65
Tier-IV city 84 8.85
Tier-V city 54 5.69
Education level
High school (≤) 115 12.12
University 500 52.69
Postgraduate (≥) 334 35.19
Occupation
Designer 405 42.67 Table 2.
Common consumer 544 57.33 Sample demographic
Total 949 100.00 characteristics
APJML Evaluation distribution (%)
Design elements 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Business planning stage

E1: theme focus 0.74 1.37 5.16 22.13 24.55 20.34 25.71
E2: merchandise variety 0.00 0.42 3.37 13.07 18.86 27.40 36.88
Building design stage
E3: space ratio 0.00 0.84 4.64 23.71 22.13 25.18 23.50
E4: space visibility 0.00 0.42 3.27 17.07 16.86 27.40 34.98
E5: space accessibility 0.00 0.00 2.00 10.96 16.54 26.45 44.05
E6: space identifiability 0.00 0.00 1.79 12.86 17.39 26.34 41.62
E7: space color 0.42 1.16 6.01 26.77 22.55 21.81 21.29
E8: space material 1.26 2.42 6.85 26.45 22.66 18.23 22.13
E9: landmark 0.00 1.37 4.64 21.07 26.77 22.87 23.29
E10: advertisement 3.79 4.00 10.96 30.98 21.18 14.96 14.12
Operation and management stage
Table 3. E11: thermal comfort 0.00 0.53 1.48 10.54 13.70 24.97 48.79
Evaluation E12: light comfort 0.00 0.84 2.42 17.28 20.23 27.40 31.82
distributions E13: acoustic comfort 0.00 1.26 3.27 16.33 18.76 26.03 34.35

E7, E8, E9, and E10) fall largely at point 4 or almost evenly distribute at points 4, 5, 6 and 7,
indicating that consumers consider these elements generally affect their experience.
To test this division of two categories, the cluster analysis was carried out using the sum
of squares of deviations, and the squared Euclidean distance was applied as the distance
index to categorize them as two groups (i.e. group 1 and group 2) (Table 4). It is found that the
clustering results are in accordance with the classification according to the data distributions.
Therefore, the elements in each group have some common attributes. In group 1, the
attributes of elements are directly related to the consumer experience: the merchandise
variety is obviously the direct purpose of the shopping activity; the space design should
ensure good visibility, accessibility and identifiability to let consumers find their required
goods and destination effectively; the designs of thermal, light and acoustic comfort are
consumers’ basic physiological demands to guarantee their normal shopping activities.
Elements in group 2 are not directly associated with shopping activities but are indirectly
perceived and experienced in the shopping process, which, in turn, affect consumers’
perceptions and experience. According to the evaluation distributions, directly related
elements in the first category generally have a more significant impact on the consumer
experience than those indirectly related ones.

4.2 Weights of design elements

As shown in Table 3, respondents’ evaluations of the 13 design elements are obviously
different, which indicate that each element has a different influence on the consumer
experience. To quantify this influence, there is a need to calculate the weights of each element.
With the criterion factor of eigenvalue >1, four principal components were determined, and
the linear relationship between those four principal components and 13 elements could be
obtained according to the component matrix (Table 5). Afterward, the linear relationship

Element E1 E2 E3 E4 E5 E6 E7 E8 E9 E10 E11 E12 E13

Table 4.
Cluster analysis results Cluster 2 1 2 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 1 1 1
 Principal components
Architectural
Design elements 1 2 3 4 design and
consumer
E1: theme focus 0.629 0.385 0.079 0.393
E2: merchandise variety 0.630 0.062 0.153 0.564 experience
E3: space ratio 0.677 0.063 0.013 0.368
E4: space visibility 0.639 0.227 0.231 0.277
E5: space accessibility 0.636 0.346 0.494 0.005
E6: space identifiability 0.619 0.362 0.468 0.038
E7: space color 0.726 0.241 0.103 0.223
E8: space material 0.724 0.355 0.047 0.209
E9: landmark 0.718 0.331 0.065 0.061 Table 5.
E10: advertisement 0.593 0.504 0.039 0.033 Principal component
E11: thermal comfort 0.567 0.429 0.384 0.201 analysis of evaluations
E12: light comfort 0.668 0.297 0.433 0.039 and component
E13: acoustic comfort 0.636 0.289 0.419 0.074 matrices

between the overall consumer experience (F) and 13 elements could be expressed by
weighting the coefficient of each element in the four principal components and their
corresponding cumulative percent variance, as shown in Formula (1). The coefficient of each
element in this formula is their corresponding influence weight on consumer experience
(see Figure 1 for normalized values).
F ¼ 0:167E1 þ 0:253E2 þ 0:136E3 þ 0:199E4 þ 0:274E5 þ 0:265E6 þ 0:127E7 þ 0:119E8
þ 0:147E9 þ 0:100E10 þ 0:184E11 þ 0:171E12 þ 0:151E13
(1)

According to the responsibilities of designers, it can be found that the work contents of
architects play an important role in consumer experience. The weights of space visibility,
accessibility and identifiability are relatively high, and reach 8.69%, 11.97% and 11.54%,
respectively. In the business planning stage, theme focus (7.29%) and merchandise variety
(11.03%) also have a crucial influence. In comparison, although the designs of thermal
(8.02%), light (7.45%) and acoustic (6.60%) environment by equipment engineers belong to
consumers’ basic physiological demands, their importance is a little bit smaller. In addition,
the weights of elements designed by interior designers are relatively low compared to the
design contents of architects and equipment engineers.

4.3 Factors of design elements

The factor analysis was conducted to further understand the correlations among design
elements from a macro perspective by reducing their dimensionality. With the criterion factor
of eigenvalue >1, four new factors could be identified, and the percent of cumulative was
67.75% for the total variance (Table 6). As seen, factor 1 (23.17%) is mainly associated with
visual atmosphere, including space ratio, space color, space material, landmark and
advertisement, which are utilized to satisfy consumers’ visual aesthetic demand. Factor 2
(16.96%) is generally associated with physical environment comfort, including thermal, light
and acoustic comfort, which are utilized to meet consumers’ basic physiological comfort
demand for the shopping environment. Factor 3 (16.78%) is mostly associated with space
structure, including space visibility, accessibility and identifiability, which are utilized to
fulfill consumers’ cognition demand for the interior space. Factor 4 (10.84%) is principally
related to business planning, including theme focus and merchandise variety, which are
utilized to meet consumers’ demand for the overall positioning of the shopping mall.
APJML

Figure 1.
Influence weights of
design elements on
consumer experience

Common factors
Design elements 1 (23.17%) 2 (16.96%) 3 (16.78%) 4 (10.84%)

E1: theme focus 0.505 0.079 0.084 0.661

E2: merchandise variety 0.139 0.274 0.321 0.738
E3: space ratio 0.614 0.259 0.384 0.085
E4: space visibility 0.343 0.247 0.640 0.034
E5: space accessibility 0.133 0.147 0.819 0.242
E6: space identifiability 0.130 0.161 0.810 0.190
E7: space color 0.719 0.280 0.208 0.077
E8: space material 0.783 0.183 0.186 0.122
Table 6. E9: landmark 0.664 0.225 0.126 0.355
Factor analysis of E10: advertisement 0.699 0.001 0.057 0.341
evaluations and E11: thermal comfort 0.040 0.783 0.180 0.218
rotated component E12: light comfort 0.257 0.784 0.165 0.124
matrices E13: acoustic comfort 0.283 0.746 0.179 0.016

The results show that those four new factors correspond to the responsibilities of designers in
the entire design process. Factor 1 and factor 2 correspond to the work contents of interior
designers and equipment engineers, respectively, and factor 3 and factor 4 are the work
contents of architects.

4.4 Perception differences caused by individual differences

The convenient one-stop shopping results in the continuous scale expansion and various
function settings of shopping malls. Consequently, to make targeted designs for specific
users in their corresponding function areas, it is necessary to know the differences in their Architectural
shopping demands. Mann–Whitney U test and Kruskal–Wallis H test were utilized to test the design and
perception differences of design elements caused by individual differences of all demographic
characteristics (Table 7).
consumer
According to the results, consumers’ perception differences of design elements can be experience
established. For example, there are significant differences between males and females in
merchandise variety, space color, thermal comfort, light comfort and acoustic comfort.
Through the comparison of individual evaluations by males and females for these five
elements (Figure 2), it can be found that the evaluation distribution of these five elements by
males at points 3 and 4 is more than that of females. In contrast, the distributions of females at
points 6 and 7 are generally higher than that of males, indicating that these elements have
greater influence on females than on males.
Similarly, perception differences of age, city level, educational level and occupation can
also be established. Specifically, for the consumers’ age differences, older people pay more
attention to the space accessibility and thermal comfort, while young people mainly focus on
the merchandise variety. Concerning city levels, the influences of space accessibility, thermal
comfort and light comfort decline as city level increases. However, the space visibility and
identifiability have the greatest impact on consumers in tier-I city. As the education level
increases, people pay more attention to the space accessibility, thermal comfort and light
comfort than advertisements. In addition, there are diversities between occupations for theme
focus, space ratio, space visibility, space material, advertisement, light comfort and acoustic
comfort. It is found that designers think factors of business planning (E1) and visual
atmosphere (E3, E8 and E10) have more impacts on consumer experience, while consumers
think factors of space structure (E4) and physical environment (E12 and E13) have a greater
impact on their experience.

5. Discussion
This paper mainly addresses two issues: the exploration of what design elements are related
to consumer experience, and the investigation of the relationship between architectural
design and consumer experience. This study supports the following four conclusions. First,
13 design elements that affect consumer experience are identified throughout the
architectural design process. Second, these elements can be divided into two categories

Demographic characteristics
Design elements Gender Age group City level Education level Occupation

E1: theme focus 0.772 0.160 0.311 0.396 0.003**

E2: merchandise variety 0.000** 0.050* 0.514 0.231 0.497
E3: space ratio 0.466 0.273 0.308 0.668 0.010**
E4: space visibility 0.244 0.062 0.022* 0.878 0.000**
E5: space accessibility 0.516 0.019* 0.049* 0.005** 0.779
E6: space identifiability 0.325 0.129 0.016* 0.078 0.448
E7: space color 0.014* 0.058 0.146 0.510 0.461
E8: space material 0.968 0.148 0.225 0.189 0.006**
E9: landmark 0.321 0.102 0.337 0.640 0.203
E10: advertisement 0.441 0.511 0.193 0.005** 0.009**
E11: thermal comfort 0.006** 0.029* 0.002** 0.000** 0.618 Table 7.
E12: light comfort 0.006** 0.129 0.009** 0.020* 0.015* Perception differences
E13: acoustic comfort 0.002** 0.181 0.309 0.339 0.000** of consumers in
Note(s): *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 different groups
APJML

Figure 2.
Evaluation
distributions of males
and females in the five
elements with
significant differences
that are directly and indirectly related to the consumer experience. The influence of directly Architectural
related elements is more significant than those indirectly related ones. Third, the elements design and
that influence consumer experience are a four-dimensional construct, including the visual
atmosphere, physical environment comfort, space structure and business planning. Fourth,
consumer
different groups of consumers have different shopping demands. experience

5.1 Theoretical and practical contributions

The first contribution of this paper extends the literature by identifying and explicating the
construction of environmental elements from the perspective of architectural design. This
study identified 13 design elements and verified them through interviews with 30
professional designers. With this finding, the specific constructions of “design,”
“atmosphere,” “aesthetic” and “architecture” are first comprehensively profiled in the
Chinese mall context, and a complete work list is proposed to provide work focus for
designers in creating an appealing shopping environment. Moreover, the four-dimensional
construction of design elements contributes to the academic literature by broadening the
scope of design elements from the store environment (Evangelista et al., 2020; Garaus, 2017;
Jang et al., 2018) to the mall context. As a mall is not the sum of its stores (Bloch et al., 1994),
some unique design elements are first proposed in this study. For example, the factor of space
structure in shopping malls includes not only the layout inside stores but also the elements in
public spaces. In this regard, the construction of design elements proposed in this work is
more comprehensive than those obtained by previous studies.
Another contribution of this study is the examined relationship between architectural
design and consumer experience. As consumers evaluate the shopping environment
holistically through the ensemble effects (Garaus, 2017), the quantitative relationship
obtained in this study comprehensively explains the influence of each singular environmental
variable on consumers’ holistic experience, thereby contributing to the literature by
providing valuable insights for marketers and designers. The acquisition of weights can
facilitate their design practice by providing design priorities for all elements and helping to
allocate their energy and time more purposefully and rationally. Especially in the case of
limited funds, reasonable and efficient use of time and money can help to maximize the design
effect.
Furthermore, the obtained weights make up some limitations of the cognition for
environmental variables. As vision sensation is the most dominant access to the external
information, there is no surprise that various studies have emphasized the effects of visual
atmosphere in shopping environment (Jang et al., 2018; Orth and Crouch, 2014; Orth et al.,
2016). However, in this study, it is found that the visual elements are not that significant to the
consumer experience. What matters more is the relationship between elements and consumer
experience, that is, elements directly related to consumer experience have more significant
impacts than those indirectly related ones. Thus, marketers and designers should reconsider
their design priorities by paying more attention to the elements of space structure, business
planning and physical environment comfort rather than the visual atmosphere.
Additionally, shopping malls have a complex composition of functions and serve a wide
range of consumers. For this reason, the current study examined the perception differences
caused by individual differences. Although extant literature has suggested that
environmental elements affect different groups of consumers differently (Turley and
Chebat, 2002), studying this specific difference in a developing nation will contribute to the
literature by enriching it in the domain of architectural design. Knowing that, designers can
develop targeted strategies for the corresponding consumer segments. First, in the business
planning stage, designers should develop more relevant strategies when determining target
consumers that they plan to serve. Then, in the design process, targeted strategies should also
APJML be applied in different functional areas of the shopping mall. In addition, similar strategies are
also required for consumers of different cities and education levels throughout the design
process. Only when the adopted strategies are more relevant to consumers can the mall be out
of homogeneity.
More importantly, for the architectural design, the current study contributes knowledge
by identifying the perception differences of common consumers and designers, and it is found
that there are significant differences between them. Hence, in response to those differences,
designers should stop designing based on their experience and adjust their cognitions to
distribute the work focus rationally from consumers’ demand.

5.2 Limitations and directions for future work

Some limitations of this research should be acknowledged. First, although the respondents
selected can represent different groups of consumers, the data collected are mainly in various
cities of China. Thus, the results cannot be generalized to other countries. Future research
should consider comparisons in different contexts to enhance generalizability. Additionally,
in the survey process, respondents completed the questionnaire in a recalled way, and there
was the possibility of memory forgetting. Although the use of this method is to make
evaluations based on all their shopping experiences rather than limiting to some specific
element presentations, there is a need to verify the findings in realistic conditions for future
research.

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About the authors

Ye Yuan is a PhD student at the School of Architecture, Tianjin University, and now he is also an
exchange PhD student at the Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore. His
research interests are in consumer experience and human-oriented architecture design.
Gang Liu is a professor at the School of Architecture, Deputy Director of International Low Carbon
Building Research Center, Tianjin University, and Director of Intelligent Building, School of
International Engineers, Tianjin University. His research interests are physical environment design
and human-oriented architecture design. Gang Liu is the corresponding author and can be contacted at:
lglgmike@163.com
APJML Rui Dang is an associated professor at the School of Architecture, Tianjin University, and deputy of
the Institute of Architectural Technology and Science. His research interests are interior light
environments, colorimetry and indoor design.
Stephen Siu Yu Lau is a professor at the Department of Architecture, National University of
Singapore. He specializes in sustainable building and urban design. He has expertise in architectural
acoustics, light and lighting, green building rating and design.
Guanhua Qu is a PhD student at the School of Architecture, Tianjin University. He specializes in data
analysis, and his research interests are interior light environments and human comfort.

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