Immersive and Interactive Visitor Experience Design
Combing design thinking, technology and film to tell a story
In the world of attractions and visitor experiences, the key challenge is fully engaging with each customer and immersing them in the experience, according to the vision and outcome needed for the project. My expertise gained on film sets, being able to construct extensive temporary structures and environments and use effects and technology to be viewed from the film viewers’ experience, was now transposed to entertain, and educate from the visitor or experiencer’s perspective.
I developed proficiency in the permanent built environment of building design, architecture, and engineering, developing a strong understanding of regulations and compliance. I also learned specialist skills in ride technology whilst universal design skills remained vital across all areas of design:
Key skills: Communication and collaboration, managing complex strategies and sequencing and keeping track of time scales budgets and accounting.
My skills in film and television served me well and my transition was seamless. Prop dressing, creating unique environments, special effects, and working with construction teams and audio-visual technicians, continued, but the environments I now designed and built would be more permanent and involve human interaction.
From research, ideation, and concept development, to overseeing the final build, as a designer, I was responsible for project managing the whole process from start to finish. I worked with professional consultants on all the construction drawings covering all technical engineering and planning matters. I managed collaborations with architects and specialists from all corners of the construction industry. Here communication with the client and connection to the end user experience was crucial to convey and test ideas. Working within the confines of budget and brand identity was a skill I continued to hone.
Throughout my career, I’ve created interpretive encounters and immersive experiences in a variety of mediums and have been fortunate to work on a diversity of projects from working with listed buildings like the railway station at the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry to the Singapore Zoo and from single exhibitions to multi-million-pound theme park adventures. My appreciation of the visitor experience has also supported projects in retail and hospitality.
Film taught me how to set a scene, here I got to play with the human interaction in that scene, how people interact and engage with their environment.
Tim Brown, CEO IDEO
WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
My early experience in this job was with the ex-head of Design at Granada TV, supporting Granada film tours and designing rides, shops, hotels and experiences at the studios.
This new path, and different way of using design thinking. Visitor attractions are all about the end user. As a designer, my thinking shifted from the limited view of the film audience’s perspective to mapping customer journey pathways, immersing people in believable and unbelievable fantasies that needed to surround them, with the aim of leaving them excited enough, to tell others and want to return for more.
RISING TO THE CHALLENGE
Visitor experience is a really exciting industry to design for. In this arena, my customers were many and varied. Creating builds that appeal to kids of all ages mum, dad and Grandad makes you follow multifarious links to ideas to satisfy or engage each user. Connecting the activities on-site to the stories behind them, I was able to cover personally relevant and socially significant issues, or like Disney, explore fun and creative journeys into future or ancient stories.
In the shops and hotels, I had to have an appreciation of every facet of human-centered design. Design in this sector is a combination of all your senses, what it feels like, looks like, smells like, tastes like and sounds like.
A FIRM FAVOURITE
Along with multiple theme parks and attractions built from scratch, one of my favorite projects at this time was an interactive installation in a listed building within Manchester’s Museum of Science and Industry.
My film experience combined with my passion and knowledge of historic buildings came together. Because of the building’s listing, we couldn’t touch the walls of the warehouse so the whole experience or story had to be told without attaching anything to the building fabric. A multitude of film sequences were projected onto the walls. And equally chaotically a 3D audio experience, of a cityscape of the Industrial Revolution, rain and running feet heading to the mills on a stormy day, then a full-size steam train rattling through your senses, as it travelled across the fabric of the building, visitors were transported 100 years back in time and found themselves immersed in a day in the location’s past.
THE STORY CONTINUES
Among my design projects in this industry, the size and scope of visitor experiences has ranged from considerably from one off retail, exhibitions, experiences to entire themed sites and visitor attractions. I’ve worked on theme parks with museums, on educational experiences. Both those built around pure fun, or serious engagement on difficult subjects, all with the ultimate goal of conjuring an experience which would not only challenge my own design skills of engaging participants fully, but also that of the visitor as they engaged with it.
Challenges – Discover more about my time in… »
Areas of Work
Hi, I'm Nicola
- Award Winning Designer of Built Environments:
- Boutique hotels, cruise ships, film and television
- Social Entrepreneur & Advocate for Sustainable Change:
- Diabetes, End of Life Conversations, Sustainable/Green Communities & Environments
- Expert Coach
- Creatrix of the Alignment Process to cut through the biggest and most expensive obstacle to designing a space or a life that truly supports the desired outcomes: “I don’t really know what I want”
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
- Research
- Concept development – visioning – ideation
- Special effects and illusions
- Communication
- Technical & construction drawings
- Model making
- Finance – budgets – procurement
- Managing teams
- Construction
- Set decorating – dressing
- Working with construction companies – engineers – ride designers and manufacturers – specialist designers – architects – engineers – animators – trades people – electricians – plumbers – decorators – floor fitters – carpenters – joiners – plasterers – bespoke fitters – landscapers – gardeners
Qualifications
- First class honors degree – Manchester school of film and television
- Design for the communication media.
- Building heritage and conservation.
- Retrofitting buildings