What User Experience Designers Can Learn from Walt Disney World

It might seem that the responsibilities of UX Designers and vacationers at Walt Disney World might be worlds apart. After all, what could designing an application or website have in common with visiting an amusement park? As it turns out, there’s a great deal.

Walt Disney World recently undertook a major initiative to remove friction points from users’ visits to their parks. Things like waiting in long lines for rides, needing to find a place to eat, and waiting for a spot in a restaurant were too often creating stress for users.

Disney sought to better understanding how users travel through their parks, where they go, what they avoid, and where their experience becomes unpleasant. Much the way a UX Designer looks at a user flow, and seeks to understand how an app or website might cause a bottleneck, Disney looked to understand the items in a visit that didn’t contribute to the user experience the customer was seeking.

This all comes down to Disney understanding what they are attempting to be best at delivering, and remaining true to this. User experience designers creating websites and apps should be seeking to understand what the website or app is supposed to be best at delivering, and continually refine their focus on this. In Disney’s case, they didn’t stop with the amusement part that was built more than two decades ago, they looked at the experience from the time a guest enters the park, through every experience they have during their time within the Walt Disney World properties, including rides, restaurants, shopping.

In an effort to improve the entire experience, Disney has developed a system that allows visitors, among other things, to reserve rides before entering the park and pre-order food at sit-down restaurants. Disney has invested $1 Billion in a system known as the Disney MagicBand that allows for these things to occur, and improves the user experience of their guests. Sent in advance and worn by visitors on their wrists, the system allows visitors to have specified times to enjoy rides, without needing to wait in especially long lines, or rush to the ride to receive a ticket to return at a specific time. The visit is pre-planned. Upon arrival at a specific restaurant, the host knows the visitors name, the food order is automatically placed, and using triangulation technology, the food is delivered to the guests at whatever table they select.

User experience designers should always be looking to remove friction points, just as Walt Disney World worked to improve the experience of their visitors. It’s these type of exercises that are covered in the user experience courses at American Graphics Institute.