Couples who shop at Ikea aren't actually bowled over by the bright colours. Nor do they bicker during their stay as often as the company's own research suggests.
Those are some findings Human Ecology student Allison Dyck made when she examined the shopping experiences of couples in the home décor store. Dyck put eight couples under scrutiny for a research project in her Material Culture in Practice course.
Dyck, fellow fourth-year students and six graduate students presented their research on how items of material culture are made, used or experienced historically, during a poster session on April 7.
Dyck's objective was to help designers identify which colours, styles and products most entice couples to remain shopping in Ikea. She found that when looking at bigger items, such as furniture, all her couples were drawn to neutral styles and shades, only considering bright colour in small accessories.
"Texture is very important to them," said Dyck. "Eight out of eight touched at least five things."
The couples she observed, ranging in age from 25 to 65, had specific agendas in mind. They didn't browse and didn't hold hands. Nor did they engage in petty fights while shopping.
That intrigues Dyck's professor, Megan Strickfaden because "we found a bunch of (Ikea's) research that actually refuted what she found."
While Dyck's study sample was small, sample size in a well-constructed study of material culture is not the most important aspect, said Strickfaden.
"We're trying to get at details of attachment to making or owning objects," she said. "We don't want to generalize. We want to explore many reasons why people attach to things."
For instance, Carolina Amaral's study of women who love sewing found that while it's satisfying to construct useful, beautiful things, for some it also fulfils a need to be complimented. Catherine Auger, who conducted a self-reflexive study on the effects of cooking, found that the concentration required to produce food from a recipe created "a wedge against depression."
Some research confirmed expectations: women do not value garages as men do, placing far more merit in mudrooms, found Anne Thomas. However, women don't smoke in garages, suggesting they respect them.
Other findings were unexpected. While some current wedding decor trends revive those of decades past such as ladder-back chairs and hand-tied flowers, the trends suggest that a decade can't be identified by its wedding décor. Traditions shift more slowly and fluidly, said Madeline Askwith, who examined wedding photos from 1900 to 2015.
The complexity of the research process in material culture sometimes undermines the opportunity to take a good research idea to fruition, said Strickfaden. Mercedes Cormier's quest to seek out garments of the Great Depression may be one example. Clothing of the era was often cobbled together from older pieces. But while oral stories suggest lots of old curtains became clothes, she found no examples in the University of Alberta's extensive clothing collection.
"It could be they just didn't survive because they were already recycled," she said.
Those are some findings Human Ecology student Allison Dyck made when she examined the shopping experiences of couples in the home décor store. Dyck put eight couples under scrutiny for a research project in her Material Culture in Practice course.
Dyck, fellow fourth-year students and six graduate students presented their research on how items of material culture are made, used or experienced historically, during a poster session on April 7.
Dyck's objective was to help designers identify which colours, styles and products most entice couples to remain shopping in Ikea. She found that when looking at bigger items, such as furniture, all her couples were drawn to neutral styles and shades, only considering bright colour in small accessories.
"Texture is very important to them," said Dyck. "Eight out of eight touched at least five things."
The couples she observed, ranging in age from 25 to 65, had specific agendas in mind. They didn't browse and didn't hold hands. Nor did they engage in petty fights while shopping.
That intrigues Dyck's professor, Megan Strickfaden because "we found a bunch of (Ikea's) research that actually refuted what she found."
While Dyck's study sample was small, sample size in a well-constructed study of material culture is not the most important aspect, said Strickfaden.
"We're trying to get at details of attachment to making or owning objects," she said. "We don't want to generalize. We want to explore many reasons why people attach to things."
For instance, Carolina Amaral's study of women who love sewing found that while it's satisfying to construct useful, beautiful things, for some it also fulfils a need to be complimented. Catherine Auger, who conducted a self-reflexive study on the effects of cooking, found that the concentration required to produce food from a recipe created "a wedge against depression."
Some research confirmed expectations: women do not value garages as men do, placing far more merit in mudrooms, found Anne Thomas. However, women don't smoke in garages, suggesting they respect them.
Other findings were unexpected. While some current wedding decor trends revive those of decades past such as ladder-back chairs and hand-tied flowers, the trends suggest that a decade can't be identified by its wedding décor. Traditions shift more slowly and fluidly, said Madeline Askwith, who examined wedding photos from 1900 to 2015.
The complexity of the research process in material culture sometimes undermines the opportunity to take a good research idea to fruition, said Strickfaden. Mercedes Cormier's quest to seek out garments of the Great Depression may be one example. Clothing of the era was often cobbled together from older pieces. But while oral stories suggest lots of old curtains became clothes, she found no examples in the University of Alberta's extensive clothing collection.
"It could be they just didn't survive because they were already recycled," she said.