Journal

Enhancing Visitor Experiences Through Placemaking.

Why you can’t afford not to connect with your audience.

Let’s face it, when it comes to attracting visitors to a destination, we’re in a time of rapid change and increased competition for consumer attention. Those that gain that attention quite often turn this into retention, but not always.

That outcome depends almost entirely on the kind of experience that was offered to the visitor as well as the level of convenience and the easability in which the experience took place for your audience. The ability of a destination to provide a positive, convenient and easy to consume experience for its visitors puts it in a strong position in making that destination an ongoing success.

Your Audience Is King.

There are many types of visitors that frequent any particular destination. For ease in describing the collective span of these visitor groups, let’s simply refer to them as your audience. And the bottom line is – if you’re in the business of operating a destination that is public facing, you simply can’t afford to ignore the needs and desires of your audience.

While there are many subsets that make up an audience and a myriad of reasons as to why they may choose to visit, in the first instance it is critical for the success of a destination to understand both of these dynamics and to tailor the destination to be appealing to these target audiences.

That sounds logical enough and many shrewd operators spend time crafting their offer to create that level of magnetism, however it’s still only the first step. To be sure – it’s an important one, however it’s not the end of the visitor experience story.

Build It and They May Come – Once.

In days gone by giving people something new to do was often enough to draw in the masses but those days of novelty are firmly behind us. This outlook falls squarely into the build it and they’ll come paradigm which is rapidly going the way of the dodo. As this new decade unfolds and with the service economy well and truly transitioning into the experience economy, it’s simply untenable to not provide visitors a level of convenience and engagement when developing public facing destinations and facilities. Such destinations could be a mixed use – retail center, a library, hotel, or a hospital. There are of course many more. It is therefore paramount to understand that not only are we in the experience economy but we’re living in a digital age where any one can express their delight or disgust at their most recent experience at the tap of a finger – broadcasting the news of inconvenience or a job well done far and wide.

Not only this, the immense competition of offers vying for the affections and attention of a far more discerning audience means that for establishments, the destination needs to be well presented, convenient and captivating. There are multitude of ways in which to connect with your audience in the experience economy. In the first instance, the careful curation and defining of the theme around the experience is critical in maintaining enthusiasm and attention.

When it comes to creating a unique sense of place, a poorly conceived theme leaves audiences uncertain and unable to organize their impressions around the experience. This typically results in a negative outcome that yields no lasting memory of the experience. An effective placemaking theme and site narrative must be precise and compelling. This acts as the basic premise of the space and addresses things like identity, location, architecture, tenant mix and the overall look and feel of the destination. On top of this, progressive layers are added that seek to enhance the visitor experience.

These layers for instance could be things like quick and reliable WIFI, suitable, easy to navigate parking with clear wayfinding and public transport connections, along with easy to find and use amenities, all of which are underpinned by the use of an easily identifiable navigation system in the form of quality wayfinding. The next layer and perhaps the most fun is to integrate wow moments into the destination through the judicious use of public art, environmental branding, events, and interactions.

These measures when taken together, provide a unique sense of place acting as the final link between humans and the built environment, providing a memorable experience while allowing visitors to seamlessly navigate and explore the destination in their own way and at their leisure with the least amount of friction. Most new destinations can attract a visitor once, but it’s continued, repeat visitation and spend that determines whether it’s a commercial success or not. There have been a litany of poorly conceived and executed destinations across the region, even in recent times where the hubris and subpar planning of the client team has led to retail and leisure destinations floundering and then failing and either being closed down or sold off.

Audiences Are Seeking New Experiences

Not only are people sharing their experiences in new ways, but they’re also seeking out new types of experiences to share. As the forces of the experience economy accelerate, consumers are enjoying the benefits of rapid innovation and new models of consumption. At the same time they’re struggling to maintain a sense of connection and understanding of our rapidly changing world.

In this context, it comes as no surprise then that experiences, especially transformative ones that educate, inspire, and bring people together, are rapidly growing in popularity. As such, it is becoming increasingly obvious that when it comes to real world experiences, consumers are looking for authenticity, meaning and engagement which in turn means that undifferentiated, cookie cutter and one size fits all attractions and retail destinations are really not that attractive anymore. Additionally, if these destinations then fail to provide acceptable baseline levels of convenience, such as shade in summer, easy to use wayfinding to navigate interiors or car parks, then the audience will seek more attractive and convenient places to spend their time and money.

The Need For Clarity

Taking all of this into consideration it seems then that the number one thing your audience is looking for is clarity. Clarity of purpose, clarity of experience and clarity in navigating these moments as a visitor, consumer, businessperson and community participant.

Therefore, if you’re seeking to connect with your audience in a meaningful way – the visitor experience must be at the core of any strategic approach when considering the design of public spaces. People typically remember negative experiences more often than positive ones. So even if you’re not trying to reinvent the experience wheel, it’s definitely prudent to at the very least provide a base line visitor journey that seeks to avoid negative experiences and all of the bad word of mouth and PR this generates. This would mean that a destination should be at a minimum; easy to get to, easy to find and easy to navigate – all of which are attributes of a strategically sound wayfinding program the likes of which Creative Dialog delivers as the Middle East’s leading visitor experience practice.

In the experience economy, the ability to allow people to navigate and consume spaces easily is one of the key tenets of delivering a positive user experience. Well planned architecture when combined with the use of thoughtful lighting, landscaping and other gestures provides a set of visual cues that go along way to defining the paths and entrances to and from destinations of interest. In the first instance this allows for intuitive navigation. When combined with simple, effectively designed information that is delivered creatively and thoughtfully, we add another layer of assistance that plays a huge role in allowing people to focus on enjoying the reason that they set off on their journey in the first place, be it a cup of coffee with friends, a business meeting with a new client or an outing with the family.

Bottom Line

It’s all about experiences first, the journey second. When it comes to delivering a sound placemaking program, it is the confluence of place design, understanding of human behavior, wayfinding and the creative outcomes adopted across the built environment that shape the places we inhabit and make them either highly desirable and a must go, or not.

It’s now up to developers and asset owners to discern this and proactively adopt a visitor centric approach to all that they do. Those that do will survive and thrive in the experience economy and those that don’t will see visitation and profitability fall. At Creative Dialog with more than 25 years of industry experience across wayfinding, signage design, placemaking and destination branding we put people, strategy and expertise at the forefront of what we do, to ensure that the visitor is always the hero.

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Get in touch with Creative Dialog today to see how we can distill these insights into actionable strategies and solutions to improve the visitor experience across your organization.