How to Organize a Theme Park

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Andrew_545: Great news Paul! All of the shipments have arrived at the theme park and construction can begin as soon as we let the crew know where everything goes. We are on schedule to open Dinotopia in August as long as we can come to an agreement about the last crucial component of our park, it’s organizational structure.

Paul_Jenkins: Perfect! I can’t believe our vision is finally coming to life after all these years. As far as the theme park layout goes, we have to figure out the most effective way to organize the exhibits and rides in a way that will draw in the most crowds. There’s a lot of options for us to consider, but I feel that pleasing our visitors is the most important factor for us to keep in mind.

Andrew_545: I agree! Dinotopia would be an empty shell without crowds of adventurous folk coming to experience the world of dinosaurs first hand. As far as the park organizational structure goes, my vote is for the park to be separated into sections of time periods based upon the order of their happening. That way we’ll be able to help our visitors travel through time by enabling them to see how dinosaurs evolved throughout history.

We could create a large circular timeline going around the perimeter of the park, in which our guests can either choose to start from the earliest periods of dinosaurs, to the latest, or in the opposite order to avoid congestion within the park. I feel that this scheme is perfect because it‘s easy to understand and navigate, and helps the parks general flow.

I have assembled a rough outline of the park structure and included it below. Let me know what you think!

Paul_Jenkins: I’ve been thinking… I don’t know if organizing the theme park chronologically is the best way to do it. Yes it would make sense to group the dinos and dino themed rides in their rightful prehistoric time periods, but what if our visitors aren’t as knowledgeable about when these dinosaurs lived as experts like you and I are?

I think our best bet is to structure the park based on our visitors, in an audience based organizational scheme. That way we can separate the attractions by which visitors wants to see what, roughly based on their age groups, with an additional section for attractions for all ages. This scheme emphasizes crowd preference by saving them time and aggravation by placing everything of interest to them in the same area. This way we can ensure our visitors will really enjoy and appreciate everything they end up seeing here at Dinotopia.

My Dinotopia layout is included below.

Andrew_545: I’m not sure about that Paul. This park is meant to be just as educational as it is fun. If we let the Megalosaurs run around the same enclosure as the raptors who roamed the world long after their enclosure mates, the park loses it’s educational appeal, not to mention it would threaten the entire dinosaur ecosystem. Our visitors would be left feeling misled and confused about the true history of these ancient creatures.

A chronological structure with a single path around the park acting as a timeline could offer a better structure by leading the crowds through the initial dinosaur age, the Tirassic Period, where they will get to meet the worlds first mammals and our prized Pterosaur Show. Then they will be led into the thickly vegetated Jurrasic Period where they will get the opportunity to experience first hand what prehistoric fish look like up close and personal. The paths will carry on right into the last substantial dinosaur inhabited period, the Cretaceous Period. It’s here where they can join our Carnivore Safari through Tyrannosaurus Rex Territory. By incorporating all of the attractions (for all age groups) throughout the timeline, we can also ensure that nothing gets skipped accidentally. We can help lead visitors on an easily understandable journey through history and teach them about these fascinating creatures in a way that makes the most sense for an educational theme park.

Paul_Jenkins: Making our visitors trek through all of the prehistoric time periods is time consuming and can become boring when they may only be interested in a specific period or exhibit.

If we structured Dinotopia according to the primary age groups of our visitors, we save the public time by providing them the exact experience they are hoping for when they walk through our gates. We can combine all the toddler rides, petting zoos, and kiddy pools in one area for our youngest visitors, section off another part of the park for older children who want to indulge in our more interactive exhibits and gentle giant dinosaurs, chunk off a third section of the park into an adult oriented escape that allows them to ride intense roller coasters and experience the thrill of their lives in the Carnivore Safari. The last section will be designated for all ages, so there is a place for families to enjoy together. This layout allows the crowds to head straight to the sections that appeal most to them, without having to worry about wasting time in exhibits that do not match their intellectual level.

Since not everyone may classify the rides and exhibits into the categories I am depicting them under, maps located throughout the park, just like the one I included before will help provide our visitors with the information they need to find what attractions are where, and limit overall scheme confusion. Additionally, if we include two alphabetical lists beside each map, one with all the dinosaurs in our park and one with all the rides/exhibits in our park, and color coordinate them with the colored park sections, our visitors can find what they seek in a quick and easy fashion.

Here’s a rough idea of what the alphabetical lists that will be displayed next to the park maps could look like.

Andrew_545: A color coded, alphabetical directory type list like you provided above is a great secondary scheme to add to the geographical maps, however, these lists would be more informative if they included pictures and descriptions of the dinosaurs and attractions, and would double as both a map for navigation and a map for information. Your lists also do not clearly identify where the exhibits are, just what section they are in, which may leave visitors confused or angry that they need to study a map to find the exhibits that interest them.

Also, when considering your categorical design scheme, did you stop to consider families that consist of a range of ages who visit our park? You offer a small “all ages section” but families will either need to separate to enjoy more of their designated sections of the park, or sit through attractions that do not interest them as they miss out on ones that do because they are located elsewhere. The all age section also does not adhere to any specific audience so it may leave our guests feeling unsatisfied when they miss out on the attractions in their specific section of the park.

Chunking Dinotopia into categories of age groups will result in folks feeling pressured to conform with their expected group and may limit their exploration into the other amazing parts of our park in fear that they will be judged. No adult can refuse petting an adorable newborn Apatosaurus, but admitting they want to hang out in the children oriented petting zoo may not be easy for everyone. Everyone who visits Dinotopia should get the chance to enjoy the wide range of exhibits and rides we offer, without being ashamed to enjoy attractions that are great for all ages, or age groups we determine are “below” their level. If we utilize a structure based on time, there would be no unnecessary segregation and our visitors would be free to see all of the attractions available.

As for your map idea, I think Dinotopia could benefit greatly with maps throughout. If we structure the park chronologically, we can display maps of the timeline, including what dinosaurs are in each section, what the terrain was superior during that period, and what major events happened then. We can also include the attractions for each period below the time line, so people know what order the exhibits come in and when to expect them.

I have added an example below to show you what my time line will generally look like, with the potential to add pictures to further clarify the information provided.

Paul_Jenkins: You have done a great job at helping me visualize your chronological park structure, but I just cannot agree that this is the best organizational scheme for our park. I’m sorry Andrew, but the decision must be made today, and as the primary owner of Dinotopia, I have to overrule your opinion in this matter.

This park is all about our audience and we will see the most success in our business venture if we structure the park layout to correlate with the various categories of age groups that will be visiting our park.

If we chose to organize the park chronologically, who’s to say a naive group of second graders won’t stumble into the prehistoric shark tank and get nightmares for the rest of their childhood; with park content that isn’t all age friendly, it’s important for us to restrict access to the adult oriented attractions by separating them from the children oriented ones.

Our goal is not only to educate our visitors, but most importantly to keep them safe and encourage them to have an influential and memorable experience in the most positive way possible. It is not an easy decision to make, but in this case we must do what is best for our visitors, not what we hold most important. We will structure the park based on color coded age categories, with accompanying navigational and informational maps. I hope you understand my point of view and support my final decision, as you are a respected member of this team and have some great ideas that could really benefit our park in the future.

Arthur Levine

Special for USA TODAY

People love theme park rides. The lines that they have to endure in order to board the rides? Not so much. But when tens of thousands of visitors arrive at a park, all of whom want to experience its major attractions, waiting around is inevitable. Some park operators, such as Disney and Six Flags, offer virtual queue programs that allow visitors to reserve ride times and skip some of the lines.

However, attraction designers have been designing queues that are so compelling, guests may not want to skip the lines. With themed environments that advance the storytelling and cleverly set the stage for the main event ride, parks have been able to turn the tedium of slowly snaking along in stanchion drudgery into, if not exactly a heavenly experience, at least an enjoyable one.

Helping to advance the trend are a cadre of graduates from Savannah College of Art and Design. Four years ago, the university (which also has campuses in Atlanta, Hong Kong and France) introduced a Themed Entertainment Design program (yes, there is a school for that.) The first and only one of its kind in the world, the graduate-level program prepares students for careers crafting fanciful attractions and lands at theme parks. One of its courses focuses on the art of creating queues.

"We see queues as great opportunities," says Gregory Beck, dean of SCAD's School of Entertainment Arts. "It's not about waiting. The best queues are quite exciting and engaging."

No matter how engaging, no preshow line could completely negate hanging around 90 minutes or more in anticipation of a 4-minute E-Ticket ride. But Beck says that Disney and Universal in particular have become adept at engaging their audiences throughout the entire attraction experience.

He cites the Star Tours attractions at Disneyland and Disney World, which are based on the "Star Wars" franchise, as one of the best examples. "Everyone knows the backstory," Beck says. Before boarding Starspeeder vehicles that will send them to galaxies far, far away, guests wind their way through a spaceport and encounter convincing animatronic representations of popular droids R2-D2 and C-3PO and other artifacts from the movies. "To be able to capitalize on that in the queue is a master stroke," notes Beck.

As attractions get more sophisticated, the bar at theme parks rises. The current high water mark for park queues, according to the SCAD professor, is shared by two Harry Potter attractions at Universal's parks in Florida and California. One invites muggles into the hallowed halls of Hogwarts Castle where paintings mysteriously spring to life and other sorcery unfolds. The other allows guests to enter the marble-columned Gringotts Bank and see lifelike goblin tellers hard at work.

Park designers don't necessarily have to rely on well-known intellectual properties to develop appealing queues. SCAD student Andrew Reiff says that the queue design class has been using Disney's Animal Kingdom ride, Expedition Everest, as a case study. The Florida attraction features a roller coaster ride in the Himalayas and an encounter with the fearsome Yeti. To ride the rails, passengers first have to trek into a Nepalese village and through an elaborate museum stuffed with exhibits and relics.

"The attention to story is incredible," says Reiff. "The queue has become less the avenue to the experience and more an integrated part of the complete experience."

Another student in the queue class, Rachel Blake, says that she enjoys lingering in the Expedition Everest line and taking everything in. But she warns that queue designers need to find a balance. "It's great to make the line entertaining -- but not too entertaining." If guests don't move quickly enough through the queue, it defeats its purpose. The goal is to keep visitors happy while getting them to the attraction as quickly as possible. "If you can combine function and form together, you can create something that's both pleasant and efficient," Blake adds.

The next generation of theme park visionaries explores issues such as form, function, and Yetis in SCAD's design classes. They bring a variety of disciplines to the program, including architecture, interior design, storytelling, engineering, and theater. Taught by Disney park veterans, students develop the plans for an attraction over the course of the queue class. Each student chooses a theme for his or her ride, designs storyboards, and considers practical logistics such as the theoretical number of guests, the amount of space needed to accommodate the queue, the locations for temporary overflow queues on busy days, sight lines for guests, and even things such as the incorporation of sponsor acknowledgements.

For her class project, Blake designed a queue for a Super Mario Bros. attraction. (Coincidentally, Universal Parks recently announced a partnership with Nintendo; the student's SCAD work could be fortuitous.) In her version, guests become characters in the videogame world. The queue includes tunnels into which participants can ascend to different game levels.

Blake's concept piggybacks an emerging trend at theme parks to offer interactive experiences in queues. At the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at Disney World's Magic Kingdom, for example, riders can sort and wash virtual jewels at stations throughout the line.

Another trend, which the SCAD class also covers, is the inclusion of holding areas for attractions. When Disney World added a second Dumbo ride platform to address the demand for the popular attraction, it also built an air-conditioned space that includes playground equipment. Riders are given restaurant-style pagers, and can freely move around the area until the pager alerts them that it's time to move outside and board the ride.

With kids barreling down slides and navigating climbing nets in climate-controlled comfort, they and their families don't feel like they are suffering in a line. Instead of waiting for what feels like forever in the hot sun for a few spins on flying elephants, Magic Kingdom visitors may now want to keep Dumbo waiting.