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How good design makes you return a shopping cart
Simple idea but Awesome.
Shopping Cart Returning Area
Shopping managers often face issues with ensuring that shopping carts are returned to their designated areas. However, the shopping cart return system at IKEA Kobe offers an excellent design solution to this problem.
When you want to return your cart after shopping, IKEA Kobe provides different sizes of shopping carts. If you used a small shopping cart, you can return it to any area designated for carts of the same size or larger. However, if a small cart is mistakenly returned to an area meant for larger carts, it prevents larger carts from being returned to their correct spot.
This return system effectively prevents incorrect cart returns. The method is very simple but ingenious: the shopping carts are secured to a steel bar, ensuring that they cannot be moved once returned to their designated area.
Cultural Constraint
In Japan, it is customary to return a shopping cart to a designated return area. These areas come in various types, with the most common being fenced enclosures surrounded by iron bars. The return area in the photograph is of this type.
Signifier
The shopping cart itself serves as a signifier. When you see the shopping cart, you can immediately understand that carts of the same type should be returned to the same location. This helps prevent the wrong size of shopping cart from being returned to the wrong location.
Lock-in
When the shopping cart is moved, the signifier may disappear. To prevent this, IKEA Kobe secures the shopping carts to the fence. This ensures that shopping carts are not accidentally moved, maintaining the organization of the return area.