Evaluation and monitoring have become major issues for cultural events. On the one hand, more detailed information is needed to satisfy event sponsors, on the other hand, the nature of events is increasingly developing towards inclusive concepts (from consumer-oriented delivery to more experiential and social values). The focus on visitor experience presents event organizers with a need to go beyond traditional measurement instruments to evaluate their events. Qualitative approaches are therefore increasingly valued for the insight they provide into visitor experience. The use of visitor journeys and thematic analysis for evaluating, monitoring and improving cultural events will be discussed on the basis of research in cooperation with ‘Rotterdam Festivals’, an umbrella organization for festivals in the city of Rotterdam. On the basis of these results, the visitor journey method allows for better insight into consumer experiences. Apart from contributing to knowledge about the event experience, the method has also proven to be a powerful tool for event design (i.e. developing new strategies and concepts), and thus it can bridge the gap identified in the literature between event evaluation and design. This paper will serve three goals: to present the outcomes of the visitor journey approach, to discuss strengths and weaknesses when compared to other evaluation approaches, and discuss the value of visitor journeys for evaluation and event design.
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Augmented Play Spaces (APS) are (semi-) public environments where playful interaction isfacilitated by enriching the existing environment with interactive technology. APS canpotentially facilitate social interaction and physical activity in (semi-)public environments. Incontrolled settings APS show promising effects. However, people’s willingness to engagewith APSin situ, depends on many factors that do not occur in aforementioned controlledsettings (where participation is obvious). To be able to achieve and demonstrate thepositive effects of APS when implemented in (semi-)public environments, it is important togain more insight in how to motivate people to engage with them and better understandwhen and how those decisions can be influenced by certain (design) factors. TheParticipant Journey Map (PJM) was developed following multiple iterations. First,based on related work, and insights gained from previously developed andimplemented APS, a concept of the PJM was developed. Next, to validate and refinethe PJM, interviews with 6 experts with extensive experience with developing andimplementing APS were conducted. Thefirst part of these interviews focused oninfluential (design) factors for engaging people into APS. In the second part, expertswere asked to provide feedback on thefirst concept of the PJM. Based on the insightsfrom the expert interviews, the PJM was adjusted and refined. The Participant JourneyMap consists of four layers: Phases, States, Transitions and Influential Factors. There aretwo overarchingphases:‘Onboarding’and‘Participation’and 6statesa (potential)participant goes through when engaging with an APS:‘Transit,’‘Awareness,’‘Interest,’‘Intention,’‘Participation,’‘Finishing.’Transitionsindicate movements between states.Influential factorsare the factors that influence these transitions. The PJM supportsdirections for further research and the design and implementation of APS. Itcontributes to previous work by providing a detailed overview of a participant journeyand the factors that influence motivation to engage with APS. Notable additions are thedetailed overview of influential factors, the introduction of the states‘Awareness,’‘Intention’and‘Finishing’and the non-linear approach. This will support taking intoaccount these often overlooked, key moments in future APS research and designprojects. Additionally, suggestions for future research into the design of APS are given.
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What Moves People: Sustainable Travel to Events at Arena PoortToday over 50% of the event goers who are going to a venue at the Poort are travelling by car. Unfortunately this has a big downside for the environment.This interactive experience map presents opportunities in which event goers can be stimulated to travel more sustainably. It shows journey of an event goer traveling to a venue at the Arena Poort. The experience map is based on several interviews, user trips and user tests done by students of the AUAS for the research group Creative Media for Social Change. The customer journey documents the emotional experience of visitors in their journey to and from the venue when they go to an event.
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This paper develops a measurement scale for cultural experiences across different contexts, including attractions, events and tours, in Hong Kong. Four dimensions of experience (cognitive, conative, affective and novelty) are identified through structural equation modelling. The scale is applied to compare visitor- and context-related influences on the experience and on subsequent behavioural intentions. We find that the conative dimension of experience elicits the highest experience scores from visitors, but affective experiences are more significant in distinguishing between different experience contexts and visitor groups. The strongest experiences were attributed to event contexts, followed by tours, and finally permanent attractions. The experience is also enhanced when various sites are combined by visitors to provide a ‘destination journey’.
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