In Situated Digital Experiences, Io T phenomenon intends to identify below cohesiveness for a connected
and fulfilled experience:
Interoperability: Data transmission and unified communication of wearable computing devices with theme
park visitors’ applications may inevitably experience
the ecosystem model while the visitor is already engaged in some ongoing experience or activity, for example while talking to friends in a restaurant or choosing new clothes in the theme park mall or taking a ride.
Right Attribute Modeling: The emergence of Experience
Design which draws on traditional disciplines such as
architecture and graphics design, but which is increasingly engaging with digital technologies. This study leads
to a provisional model called “right attribute modeling”
that predicts which compelling experiences will tend to
involve stimulation of the senses and imagination, challenge and self-expression, and/or social interaction.
Experiential patterns through gamification: Enablement
of constructing proof-of-concept wearables through various user heuristic evaluations. Visitors’ applications amplified with a gamification element encourages them to
collect “stickers” by visiting locations within the theme
park/amusement center. Visitors then receive badges that
they could share on their social media accounts. This
helps the theme park/amusement center benefit from
each new post.
During the evaluation of the consulting model for
wearables and mobile computing implementation,
I envisage following use case scenario:
■ A majority of visitors have a device on hand while
in a park. Half of those visitors will take and share
pictures on social media. How do theme parks benefit? One of the most obvious ways is exposure.
When a visitor posts a photo of themselves enjoying
a particular ride or posing with a favorite character,
that’s some of the best word of mouth marketing that
theme parks/amusement centers can generate.
■ Availability of location-based tagging in theme
parks/amusement centers on the major social networks/
augmented reality photo stations, which allows visitors
to check-in or note their location when they post.
■ Provision of wearables/wrist-bands creating ul-tra-personalization experiences through RFID bands
linked with online profiles for each visitor. These
bands can be scanned at theme parks/amusement centers kiosks to access advance ride bookings, receive
customer service, and make purchases.
■ Access to resort hotels, gift stores to buy souvenirs or
buy food at restaurants through wearables/wrist-bands
and automation of the customer journey mapping analysis based on wearables/wrist-bands data. This might include the steps the visitors go through in engaging with
products, rides, characters, retail experience, advertising,
or a service, or any combination. The more touchpoints
theme parks/amusement centers are able to instrument,
the more complicated—but insightful—customer behavior analytics can be drawn and more engaging customer
experiences/personalization can be developed.
On one hand, theme park/amusement center management recognizes that a permanent process of developing
and implementing innovations (hardware) is a highly
important factor for attracting new customers and keeping them returning at a steady flow. On the other hand,
they also begin to understand that discovery of various
customer experiences and emotions leads the way to
the development of new markets as well as linking the
available customers to the specific theme parks.
With a vast array of data available from wide
sources such as data from aerial surveys, camera traps
and radio collar, wearable devices, smart phones,
loyalty card vouchers, business cards, payment cards,
visit maps, restaurant/zoo reservation tokens, web
based kiosks, Web 2.0 and social media, multimedia
files etc., Io T aura theme parks/amusement centers are
helping generate and analyze real time data for monitoring long-term trends in tropical biodiversity, guide
conservation actions and enabling superior customer
experiences. The objective is to turn these signals into
personalized recommendations served via customer
marketing systems. As theme parks/amusement centers generate and capture more data, they will be able
to do more predictive analytics.
Rahul Goswami is a Certified Consultant in Sales &
Marketing Advisory services and works in the areas of
Global Sales and Solution Support, Bangalore (India).
