User & Visitor Experience Management (VEM) for Public Spaces
Visito Experience Management (VEM) is about creating a seamless, engaging, and accessible journeys for every guest, whether they’re exploring a museum, navigating a busy transit hub, enjoying a day at the zoo, or attending a stadium event. Managing how people interact with your venue from the moment they arrive to the moment they leave is essential, and these guides below are aimed to provide lots of great tips, advice, and tools to help you.
Visitor Experience Managers (VEMs) Guides
What Makes a Positive Hospital Visitor Experience and How to Improve It
What turns a hospital visit from stressful to smooth? Learn how better signage, flow, and neuroinclusive design can transform healthcare spaces.
See how to improve hospital visitor experiences →
The Neuroinclusive Journey: Designing Visitor Spaces That Guide Without Overwhelm
Struggling visitors don’t just lose their way, they lose trust. Neuroinclusive design creates calmer, clearer environments using tested strategies like colour-coded paths and simplified signage that improve navigation for everyone.
Learn what makes spaces easier for neurodiverse visitors to navigate →
How to Improve Museum Visitor Experience (and Art Galleries) Through Better Wayfinding and Signage Design
If you are running an art gallery or museum then working out how to improve museum visitor experience numbers can be a daunting task and there are many things to consider. In this pos,t I want to give some suggestions for using wayfinding and signage design for...
Visitor Experience Expert Services and Wayfinding
Creating Seamless Visitor Experiences Through Wayfinding & Experience Design There are numerous benefits to improving your user and visitor experience, whatever type of location you are and using a visitor experience expert can save you a lot of time and effort....
What is Nomenclature in Wayfinding? 4 Reasons Wayfinding Nomemclature is Important
Nomenclature is the naming conventions we use on wayfinding signage to help people navigate. Consistency and clarity are essential on signage.
Creating a Heritage Narrative for Airport Users UX User Experience
Building a heritage narrative for your wayfinding airport user experience (UX. Developing commercial opportunities via route development.
What is Wayfinding? A Guide to Navigation and Visitor Experience Design
Lost in a shopping mall or confused at an airport? Wayfinding is more than signs. It’s how we mentally and physically navigate space. Learn the five stages and explore how social, psychological, and design factors shape our movement.
Understand how wayfinding works across environments →
Wayfinding as a Social Activity and Sociocultural Experience – How Navigation Is a Human-Centered Experience Read the Ph.D.
Wayfinding as a Social Activity and sociocultural experience. Learn how navigation is a human-centered experience and read the Ph.D.
How to Make GPS that Works Indoors using Repeaters
Today we are talking about how to generate a GPS signal in indoor locations. Many of us now use GPS devices, such as on our mobile phones or cell-phones and the GPS signal often works very well.
Hawaiian Navigation and the Hokulea Journey
News of the amazing Hawaiian navigation trip around the world canoe trip from Hawaii. The Hokulea journey with no navigational equipment.
2040 Walking and Cycling Strategy from the Transport Department
Strategy for getting people walking and cycling. Department of transport plan. Wayfinding and research and development for health.
Helping Blind and Visually Impaired Travellers and DDA Solutions
Help for Visually Impaired Travellers and the blind. Visibility, wayfinding, and DDA navigation. iBeacons, technologies, tactile Ground Surface Indicators.
How to Improve Retail Wayfinding to Improve Sales Performance using Steering Behaviour
Improve retail sales performance using wayfinding to guide and navigate people to sales points. Strategies to increase spending in airports.
Traffic Lights Design and Standards Worldwide
Traffic lights design and lighting systems from around the world. Vegas, Cadiz, La Coruna and Cardiff and the magic world of traffic lights.
Buckingham Palace Visitor Experience Wayfinding Case Study
Buckingham Palace, London, opens up for 2 -3 months every summer with certain areas of the Palace open to the general public (click for tickets). Visiting such a unique attraction is a great opportunity to see how wayfinding is used in the Palace and in the grounds...
Why Visitor Experience Management Matters
Managing, designing, and creating a great visitor experience is a complex and difficult thing at first, in that there are so many considerations and possibilities.
Through experience, though, as you might appreciate if you are already a Visitor Experience Manager (VEM), creating a positive and great user experience in a location is much more than just good signage and having friendly staff on hand.
Indeed, VEM is really about understanding your users’ and visitors’ needs, anticipating any challenges they might face, and designing experiences that leave a positive and great lasting impression.
This includes everything from the:
- Wayfinding (how they find their way around)
- Accessible design to accommodate various users (including for neurodiverse visitors)
- Heritage interpretation (and experiences)
- Digital engagement
- Visitor and queue control planning
- Real-time feedback collection.
A great and well-executed VEM strategy directly impacts satisfaction, return visits, and overall reputation. VEM definitely matters!
Whether you’re a Visitor Experience Manager, estates manager, operations director, or working in guest services, you’ll find numerous posts on tools, best practices, and info on visitor-centered design on this site. I’ll also cover topics such as how to improve guest flow, and numerous other related topics, so hopefully you find this site useful.