How can we prevent tourists from wandering City Hall, interrupting meetings, barging into offices, and stealing Royal Copenhagen porcelain?
City Hall attracts thousands of international tourists each year, especially during the peak season in July and August when approximately 80,000 visitors arrive. It serves as a public workplace while also being open to the general public for tours of the tower and other activities.
Elevating the City Hall Experience
To cultivate a desired behavior, our approach is about providing tourists with a clear sense of purpose from the beginning of their visit. The solution focuses on enhancing signage, providing concise information about their location and available options, and offering self-guided tours in the form of a brochure. Following the philosophy of renowned Danish architect Jan Gehl, we "invite" tourists to explore City Hall.
Empowering Tourists with Purpose: A Novel Approach to Visitor Management
Our test showed that while there was room for improvement, the overall concept was effective. Instead of tourists wandering around confused upon entering the building, they quickly understood that they were visiting City Hall. The greeting stand at the entrance acted like sticky tape, attracting attention. It provided basic information at a glance and held brochures for the tour. The self-guided tours functioned as a crowd control mechanism, although the route could be improved and the maps made easier to navigate. However, we successfully changed behavior by adding value to the visits. This, in turn, created a better work environment for the staff by ensuring that tourists stayed in designated areas.
A DEEP-DIVE INTO THE PROCESS
Unfolding the problem and scooping the project
We invited department heads to a workshop session at City Hall to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the problem space. I facilitated the workshop, where we collectively explored the original problem and allowed each participant to address their pain points. This exercise promoted a shared understanding and commitment to the project.
It became apparent that the current behavior of the tourists had several negative consequences, so I forced them to prioritize in order to narrow down the scope of the project. The exercises served as stakeholder management activities, requiring participation in dialogues with other department heads and decision-making.
"Tourists are everywhere in the Town Hall and can be a nuisance to the people who work at the Town Hall. There is a lack of support and an understandable framework for the desired behavior.”
The stakeholders unanimously agreed on the project's scope. They suggested a quick fix of placing restriction signs everywhere. However, we opted to postpone proposing solutions until we gained a better understanding of the causal structures behind the undesired behavior. While the stakeholders agreed on the problem and scope, they were unable to explain its cause, necessitating further investigation.
The undesired behavior is a symptom, not the problem.
To understand the situation in detail, we interviewed staff members from different departments who directly interacted with tourists. We also observed tourists arriving at City Hall, strolling around, and interacting with the space and staff.
Based on observations and interviews, we have identified findings that reveal the causal structures behind the described and observed behavior. It is evident that the staff members themselves, rather than the absence of restrictions or uninformed tourists, were responsible for the undesired behavior. The departments were misaligned and inadvertently worked in opposition to each other. Our objective was to show the staff members that the undesired behavior was not the problem in itself, but rather a symptom of their own behavior.
We displayed our findings on the wall in the war room and shared them with the staff. The wall served as a storytelling tool, showcasing images, drawings, and quotes. It allowed us to invite participation without verbal communication. If we had used Miro, for instance, there would have been limited interaction and engagement with questions and thoughts.
Findings from the wall were condensed down to the following statements:
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Tourists are often uncertain about the building they are in and its dual function as a workplace.
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Tourists desire to explore and experience various options, yet they lack a comprehensive overview.
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Tourists receive ambiguous information regarding their potential experiences. They are informed that the building is accessible to them and they are permitted to explore any area with open doors.
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Tourists are informed that they “have access to the entire house”. However, due to the lack of directions or guidance, they often get lost and unintentionally disrupt the people working there.
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Tourists are confused about the signage which actually leads them to the undesired areas of city hall
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Tourists don’t have any time. It’s out of the bus and into the bus. They have a tight schedule and low attention span
Ideation with staff members
Having a mutual understanding of the problem and its underlying causes, we should now concentrate on finding a suitable solution. We believed it would be beneficial for the project and team morale to engage the staff in the solution-finding process. We sensed that, despite being unintentionally responsible for the problem, they were genuinely eager to contribute to the solution. This approach proved to be wise. We not only received numerous valuable ideas from them but also received significant assistance in rapidly prototyping artifacts for the tests.
Based on our findings formulated an actionable "How might we" question. This would provide a direction and create an opportunity for generating multiple ideas. Our goal was to generate several ideas for us to select from.
How might we give the visitors a good start and a 'sense of purpose' with their visit to the Town Hall and ensure that the tourists move to the "right" places, without breaking with the building's open DNA.
In addition to establishing the direction, our aim was to inspire imagination. It's important to note that none of the staff members had prior experience with this process. To ignite imagination, I created a presentation on the wall, showcasing inspirational examples. Jan Gehl, whom I consider the UX’er of Architecture, has always been a source of inspiration for me. At the time, I was reading one of his books and became fascinated by the concept of inviting users in order to change habits. This goes hand-in-hand with Charles Duhigg- the author of The Power Of Habits. In his book, the author states that habits can only be changed by replacing them with new ones. In my presentation, I emphasized the idea that to change behavior, you must actively encourage people to engage in a new behavior.
We held two ideation workshops where we generated multiple concepts. These concepts ranged from simple analog solutions to more complex digital ones. I then presented these ideas to the stakeholders and, together with them, we voted on which concepts to test.
The voting led to a non-digital concept which was my preferred choice. The concept was an easy and simple way of testing if we could create a desired behavior without restricting tourists. It could easily be upgraded to a digital experience in the future.
I could sense there was a push towards a digital concept, but I insisted on keeping it simple for various reasons. Firstly, we observed that tourists arrived and departed swiftly without any inclination or intention to exert effort. The entry-level for the solution should be extremely low. There is no time to log onto Wi-Fi, and who would want to download an app for such a brief period? They even had a digital stand located at the entrance but observations informed us it was never in use for several reasons. Secondly, due to time constraints, let's test a simple and low-fidelity concept that can fulfill the task. If it proves effective, we can consider upgrading it later.
The concept included several parts.
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A stand to capture their attention from the beginning and provide them with a limited number of brief and straightforward experiences.
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Upgrade signage to provide essential information at a glance. Clearly indicate the location and available experiences. Including Danish, English, and Chinese languages.
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Invite them to a brief, self-guided tour that will keep them within the desired areas.
Small interventions can have a huge impact
We rapidly created all the artifacts through rapid prototyping and tested them throughout the day. We observed tourists at City Hall from their arrival to departure and conducted interviews with some of them afterward.
Our observations revealed that upon arrival, tourists immediately sought information and appeared to be well-informed about their options. While not all of them chose the self-guided tour, many did. The majority had a successful tour, although some deviated from the designated route. Interviews indicated that the route was difficult to follow and the map lacked details. This feedback was valuable and easily addressable. Additionally, tourists were aware that they were at City Hall and felt they had a good overview of the available experiences. Despite it being only one day, it was evident that our small interventions made a significant difference for both visiting tourists and the staff at City Hall.
Learnings
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Don't jump to solutions without fully understanding the problem and its underlying causal structures.
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Invite users and staff to participate in the process if you sense their willingness. If you perceive their energy and motivation to participate, ask them to engage in a manner that you find comfortable.
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Although the tested solution isn’t digital, Design Thinking and its methods are highly effective.
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A skilled UX designer is similar to a detective who investigates and can navigate between details and a holistic perspective.
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There is a tendency to prioritize digital solutions without fully understanding the context. The prevailing belief is that digital solutions are superior and the focus is on selecting the appropriate technology. However, I strongly disagree with this argument.
My role
UX Designer / Service designer
My tasks
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Conduct observations
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Conduct interviews with staff members from various departments
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Facilitating workshops for relevant stakeholders
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Exploring different concept directions
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Presentations for stakeholders and C-level
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Designing the crowd control concept
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Prototyping artefacts
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Planning and facilitating user tests
Team
1 X Account Manager
1 x Project Manager
1 x Service DEsigner UX Designer (Me)
1 x Designer