At Designing for Usability class, we had this interesting assignment called Shadowing (or Shopper/Observer activity) in which we had to shadow a person's behavior when entering a store to buy a specific item. This time, we had to find "Command Brand Damage-Free Hanging Utility Hook" at Bed, Bath & Beyond and The Container Store, both located at the 6th Avenue of the Americas. I partnered with Yeyoung Cho, and for each behavior map we had to draw the layout of the store, draw the path and for each notable step we took notes of the Pain Points and Success Points, as seen below:

In total, to found the specific item at Bed Bath & Beyond, it took us 2 minutes and 56 seconds, while at The Container Store it took us 2 minutes and 41 seconds. There's not much of a difference in terms of the duration, I guess we were lucky enough compared to other group that even spend over 20 minutes! For us, we concluded that Bed Bath & Beyond is more puzzling, there are too many stuffs there with inconsistent signs that it feels so cramped and customers easily feel 'lost' in their own world (which we thought may be intentional to get people to buy more). The Container Store is a little bit more easier to navigate and find stuffs, and the layout of the store including where to find the checkout area is clearer.