The direction you explore a space says a lot about you…
Whether it’s a shop, activation or showroom, you’ll choose to navigate it clockwise or anti-clockwise – and there’s a reason behind your choice.
I was looking into human behaviours in retail and how they interact within immersive environments. One piece of research that kept popping up was Paco Underhill’s theory ‘The Invariant Right’. Named so because, according to his studies, the invariable default among shoppers is to turn right and then explore the space in an anti-clockwise direction.
After some further digging, it seemed to be explained because the majority of us are right-handed and therefore favour our dominant side – which seems like a logical explanation when looking at the space as a whole.
However, after reading about this I soon realised that I seem to buck the trend. Despite being right-handed, when I enter a shop or pop-up I always go to the left and explore spaces in a clockwise direction. Because of this, I decided to do some further research outside of retail environments…
It turns out that when people are given the choice to turn left or right, psychologists have found that extroverts will go right and introverts will go left. And this seems to correspond with my own experiences because I certainly identify as a more introverted person, whereas my husband – a right-turner – is more extroverted.
But what does this mean for business?
Simply put: It dictates design. Having this knowledge and understanding of human psychology means that we can design spaces and plan the flow of guests with a clearer picture of their behavioural habits.
What’s more, realising that different personality types will interact in different ways means we can take these considerations on board when creating installations, activations or even breakout rooms at a conference. We can be more strategic with our placement of products and key takeaways to guarantee maximum engagement from everyone – whether they are an introverted left-turner like me, or an extroverted right-turner like my husband.
Author: Anika Modi
Anika is a Producer at Crescendo who loves designing and delivering lifestyle installations and guest experiences.
