Diana Budds has published an article over at Fastco Design; The Future Of Shopping Is . . . Second Life On Acid? The article features the work of British designer and filmmaker Allison Crank, who is based in Eindhoven, which is in The Netherlands, not Britain!
The basis of the article is that e-commerce is trumping the mall and therefore, the social experience of the physical mall is being lost. Allison Crank suggests that one way of bringing back the social side of the mall is to introduce virtual reality.
Allison’s concept is the basis of her thesis from June 2015; The Reality Theatre: Shopping In The Ludic Century and in the FastCo Design article we get to hear more of the concept:
Crank calls it “a new third place for the public to meet, perform, indulge, and play in immersive environments.” I call it Second Life on acid. The designer envisions her concept working with augmented reality devices like Microsoft’s Hololens or Magic Leap to superimpose this virtual world over our own. For example, if someone were commuting, he or she could strap on an augmented reality headset and participate in the Reality Theater.
The major problem I have with Allison’s idea is that we’ve seen malls in Second Life, lots and lots of malls. We’ve seen malls with impossible physics, we can teleport in Second Life. However, malls in Second Life have been undone not by a future more immersive product, but by the ease of point and click shopping that the Second Life Marketplace offers. This isn’t unique to Second Life by the way, I’ve seen people in OpenSim asking for web based marketplaces, indeed Kitely has a web based marketplace.
People love the ease of shopping that web based marketplaces provide. This isn’t to say that Allison’s idea is dead in the water, far from it, but it is a warning to people who think virtual reality shopping is going to be a popular tool of choice compared to a web based shopping experience.
Where Allison could well be on the right track is in terms of turning stores into stages :
Shopping is a public performance. Stores are theatres where you can be both performer and spectator. What if we designed stores as stages? What if shopping were a script for new stories? Shopping architecture is the most common form of ‘third places’: a space for public activities where you can see and be seen. However, with the rise of online shopping and cyberspace, shops and malls are facing rapid obsolescence. To counter this, I propose that stores should be transformed into playgrounds for experiences, where consumers become actors with the ability to perform, spectate, play and indulge themselves in the environment.
The way a lot of Second Life stores market themselves these days is not always by merely having a presence in a mall, they also market themselves by taking part in events. Indeed there’s an event starting tomorrow; Fantasy Creators Showcase :
Blue Moon Enterprise Presents Yuletide Showcase Festival
Nov 21st – Jan 9th, 2016This showcase festival shines on the creativity, imagination and beauty of 20 of Second Life’s most excellent fantasy creators. Each creator was asked to pick their favorite items to feature. In addition they will offer a free hunt item in the seasonal theme. Come join the fun and enjoy the Great live music, Great gifts. Great items… Get your hohoho on with us.
There are many other shopping events throughout the year, some large, some small, but they all involve trying to entice people in by offering something more than simply walking around malls. That’s something Allison Crank highlights too, giving people a story, a means to be on the stage, play a part in something else, but I can’t help feeling that people will like the ideas, enjoy the experience but then go back to pointing and clicking on a web based store, because it’s easier to do.
I like Allison’s ideas and I like Allison’s enthusiasm. Shopping and Virtual Reality will happen, but whether it will stick is another story, one which probably will be played out in a VR mall near you some day in the not too distant future.