Contained within this report are a series of case study field observations of selected retail design projects utilizing natural daylighting. Followed by the investigation and laboratory testing of three alternate roof fenestration patterns applicable to the least effective design. A description of the investigation procedure, a tabulation of all research findings and a section of concluding observations serve to round out this study. All of this done in an effort to prove that there exists a positive relationship between the effective incorporation of daylighting and owner/user satisfaction with the retail building type. / Master of Architecture

Store lighting is a combination of art form and function that contributes to a retail store's sales and prosperity. The quantity, quality, and effect of the light reaching the merchandise are the determining factors in the success of the sale of merchandise. There are three basic merchandise lighting techniques used in retail stores. They include the low-end, mid-market, and high-end lighting techniques. However, retailers are developing merchandising techniques that do not have a clear cut lighting solution. A new merchandising technique for the audio/video retailer is the simulated home environment (SHE). It is a series of rooms and vignettes that present audio/video products in a home setting. Studies have shown that lighting has an affect on human behavior. In a retail store, three customer behaviors are linked to increased sales: customer communication with store personnel; customer interaction with displays and merchandise; and length of time in the store. The purpose of this study was to determine which of the lighting techniques was most effective in stimulating the customer behaviors linked to increased sales in an audio/video store's SHE. The study was conducted in an audio/video store's SHE equipped with a lighting system that could produce the three lighting techniques. Each day the SHE's lighting system was set up for one of the lighting techniques and customer behavior was unobtrusively observed and recorded. A convenience method of sampling was used in the study. The subjects were the customers shopping in the SHE. The study's experiment was done twice using two methods for selecting the observation days for the experiments. One method used the same day of the week in three successive weeks (SDW), the other used three different days within the same week (DDW). The sample size for the SDW method was 123, and 47 for the DDW method. To assess the effectiveness of the lighting techniques in stimulating customer behavior, two behavior rating scales were created. The Customer Communication Rating Scale and the Customer Display and Merchandise Interaction Rating Scale assigned values to observed customer behavior. The third customer behavior, length of time in the SHE, was measured in minutes. Data was analyzed using Chi Square tests for the Customer Communication Rating Scale and the Customer Display and Merchandise Interaction Rating Scale. An ANOVA was used to analyze the length of time in the SHE. The results indicated that both the mid-market and high-end lighting techniques were significantly better than the low-end lighting technique in stimulating customer display and merchandise interaction, and longer customer visits in the SHE. However, the results indicated that all three lighting techniques were equally effective at stimulating customer communication with store personnel. The study concluded that store lighting designs that include highlighting of displays and merchandise will stimulate customer display and merchandise interaction and longer customer visits. / Master of Science