An Outline

Narrowing down a topic is key to quality research. A broad scope of information is cumbersome to navigate and easy for the reader to lose interest. It is also daunting for the author.  

This research paper, generally speaking, is about human behavior and its impact on the built environment. The research equivalent is this question: “Power of Choice: Spatial convenience in adaptive re-use development of retail centers in urban environments.” To narrow this topic, I need to examine how I intend to address the research. An outline will be an innovative tool to track the data to streamline such a large volume of information and hopefully help narrow the topic. Below is a list of questions, ideations, and supporting papers and articles.

Choice Architecture

1. Examining how people, places, and things consciously and subconsciously help people make choices without forcing a particular outcome.

Choice Architecture by Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. Sunstein, John P. Balz :: SSRN

Psychology of Choice

1. What is the choice theory?
2. Mental mapping of decision-making.

Psychology of Choice - Psychologist World

Everything You Need to Know about the Psychology of Choice | Cleverism

Convenience

1. What are the types of convenience?
2. Why do individuals shop online?

Identifying the Convenience-Oriented Consumer on JSTOR

Cost-Versus Convenience-oriented Consumers: Demographic, Lifestyle, and Value Perspectives: ABSTRACT - ProQuest

Relationship of Type of Product, Shopping Orientations, and Demographics with Preference for Shopping on the Internet on JSTOR

Spatial Convenience

1. What is the definition of spatial convenience?
2. How do physical adjacencies play into the decision-making process? (Transit, internet, time, etc)
3. What is the right balance of amenities or types of offerings to be successful (by way of foot traffic, profit)

Measuring Human-Scale Living Convenience through Multi-Sourced Urban Data and a Geodesign Approach: Buildings as Analytical Units – Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)

Fall of Retail Centers

1. What are the types of retail centers?
2. Examine the rise and fall.

Shopping Center Redevelopment Concepts for Dead Malls (useful-community-development.org)

The Fall Of The Mall And How To Make Them Rise Again (forbes.com)

Reinventing the Mall Experience

1. What are the opportunities for re-development?
2. Why is it important?

Reinventing the Mall | Dialogue 35 | Gensler

Rise of Lifestyle or Town Centers

1. What is a lifestyle or town center?
2. Why are they successful?
3. What are the pitfalls?
4. What are other opportunities for the future, beyond the lifestyle/town center?

Lifestyle centers: reinvented communities or dressed-up shopping malls? (theconversation.com)

A primer on retail types and urban centers | CNU

Experience is the new buzzword for walkable town centers | CNU

Smart cities, smart future - QuickSearch - University of Arkansas Libraries (serialssolutions.com)

Significance

1. What is impact or significance of this type of development?
1. Community / Economy
2. End-user
3. Environment
4. Health & Well-being

Case Study Evaluation

1. Compare two case studies (to be determined)
1. Option A - Two projects by the same developer/architect.
2. Option B - Two projects, various locations. Suburban vs. Urban.