OUR METHODOLOGY
WHY? / PRIMARY / SECONDARY / VISUAL MAPPING
Coronation Shopping Plaza was chosen for its unique rustic charm and its location. It is located in the prime estate between many schools in that area, many students frequent there after school.
Being the place where we, students forged most of our "after school memories", the mall holds a special place in our hearts.
We also want to bring to light Coronation Shopping Plaza's value, as recently, it is losing its flow of traffic due to the emergence of newer malls in the vicinity.
Why Coronation Plaza?
Conducted Interviews
For the purpose of finding out what Coronation meant to shopkeepers in the mall.
How?
Our Primary Research
1. Questions asked are all open-ended, to allow the interviewees to have not feel limited by our questions and instead share freely their sentiments and memories of the mall.
2. Shop owners: Chose a range of older to newer shops but all of which have a relatively long history with the mall and hence more connection/attachment with the mall (10-30 years).
3. Different types of shops: toys, food, hairdressers, stationery as their customer demographic is different. Hence, their experience with the changing popularity/atmosphere of the mall would also differ accordingly.
4. Cash incentive: Attractive cash incentive for taking part in our survey but most of the shop owners were very warm and receptive to being interviewed, some even said the money was unnecessary. Interviews showed that many of these storeowners are used to chit chatting with their customers, so they didn’t think much of the interview process, having been approached by us in a very casual manner. Most were, however camera shy, and declined being photographed.
National Archives / Website
To obtain photographic materials of Coronation mall. However, there was a lack of such materials at the National Library.
Personal Memories
Many of our teammates frequented the mall when they were younger, having lived in the vicinity or schooled nearby. This way, we would be able to get a clearer picture of the changes in the mall (which shops moved out and which moved out). However, memories and recollections may not be accurate.
Online Articles
To find out more about the mall or any significant events or changes that occured in the past. However, there was a lack of existing articles online as the prime of the mall happened way before the age of Internet and so it was challenging trying to find out information virtually.
Our Secondary Research
Visual Mapping
Methodology
1. We took photographs of the mall map displayed at the lift lobby.
1. We took photographs of the mall map displayed at the lift lobby.
2. Using that, we outlined a more detailed map on Illustrator.
2. Using that, we outlined a more detailed map on Illustrator.
3. Printing out the rough outline, we returned to Coronation mall to map out the exact location and name of every store.
3. Printing out the rough outline, we returned to Coronation mall to map out the exact location and name of every store.
Challenges
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Some stores were shared between multiple tenants, hence we had trouble dividing it on the map outline.
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The outline we gathered from Coronation Plaza’s online resources were not reliable.
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Some stores had no indication of their unit number.
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Security guards questioned us while we were mapping the grounds, which delayed the process.
4. Lastly, we mapped out all the units on all 3 floors using Photoshop, categorising the floors based on the types of shops found.
4. Lastly, we mapped out all the units on all 3 floors using Photoshop, categorising the floors based on the types of shops found.