Earlier in the semester, English professor Dana Anderson said he discovered many students in his W321 class had never been to an IKEA store. Anderson said his jaw dropped, as he is a long-time fan of IKEA.
W321 is an advanced technical writing course. It teaches students to expand their skills in visual and written communication, such as signage and instructional manuals, Anderson said.
“Because of their interesting designs and communications, lots of sample documents I brought into class were about IKEA,” he said.
Anderson said the discovery led him and his students on the journey to West Chester. Funding for the trip was provided by the Culbertson Endowment in the English department.
Anderson said in an email it is because many of IKEA’s products are build-it-yourself that make its technical documents, such as instructional manuals, ?so important.
IKEA also markets to a diverse international audience, which can be a challenge. On their trip, students learned about marketing and how IKEA creates signage to make it easy to navigate ?the store.
“Often when you think about English you think about studying Mark Twain,” Anderson said. “I wish more students knew that there were practical things you can do with writing.”
Kitalena Mason, director of local marketing and communication for IKEA, said in an email that this was the first English class they have hosted, and often the groups that visit are design classes.
“We love that it was a class you wouldn’t expect to come to our store,” Mason said.
Mason said she thought it was a good idea for the class to visit IKEA because it presented a fresh perspective on communication strategy.
“How we use language is crucial to our business,” she said. “It brings people into the store, shows them how to shop, where to find things. There’s a lot of strategy involved in how we communicate to our visitors. You have to really know how to use language to convince people to buy no matter what type of business you have.”
Ava Dickerson, a senior and teaching assistant for the W321 class, was among the students that had never visited IKEA. She described the trip as “fantastic” and said she saw many things learned in class being put to use.
“Pretty much everything professor Anderson taught us was there,” she said. “The title of the class is Advanced Technical Writing, and I can’t think of a better way to study that than going to an ?incredibly successful business and seeing how they use design.”
Dickerson said her favorite part of the trip was the opportunity for students ?to bond.
“We have a lot of group work to do, and this gave everyone the chance to interact outside the classroom but still within the subject of design,” she said.
Anderson said he aimed to make the trip half about going somewhere and half about having fun and bringing in what they’d learned in the classroom.
Students are using this experience to complete one of their final assignments on verbal communication. They had to take pictures of interesting signage and icons to then discuss using the things they have learned ?throughout the semester.
“Sometimes you can accomplish what you need to in a classroom, but to understand what it’s like to write for a real audience you have to get out and meet with real professionals,” he said.
