Finally, our Efteling outing has arrived! I have been waiting for this fun-filled day since the beginning of the program, and normally I’m not the type to get excited about a day of warm weather, waiting lines, and amusement park food, but I was so excited to get to the park and explore. Being the proactive and organized students we are, a group of us mapped out our path through the park, ensuring that we could hit all of the major rides in the 5 hours we had. Some of us also downloaded the Efteling app so that we could look up wait times and bathroom locations. As I don’t spend much time in amusement park I was so surprised to see the app map use locative data like Google Maps to show us walking routes and our immediate location in the park. This made it extremely accessible to find the nearest bathroom and get more details about what each ride was like and what you could expect from the experience. I’m sure that many major parks like Disneyland and Disney World use similar systems, and it made the overall experience more enjoyable and streamlined because we could more easily maximize our time spent in the park.
This app innovation connects to what I learned in my Digital Geography class last quarter (spring 2019). We talked about the properties of digital objects and one that stands out to me is the concept of “thick description.” This is when an object, a map in this case, is able to communicate more content and a richer customer experience without compromising the platform's efficiency and aesthetic. A paper map needs to be concise and selective about what material is shown because the map can only be so large. A digital app-based map can use pop-up windows, zoom functions, and more variability in the ways it displays information, so the user experience is even more enjoyable. This is an innovative way to ensure that people have an easier experience at the park which hopefully makes them want to go back in the future. Some other innovations to the user experience were special baby carts/strollers that the park provided meaning that parents wouldn’t need to worry about bringing their own. Another one is the “single rider” line; I’m not sure if most or all amusement parks have it, but this is a great way to more efficiently fill rides so that lines will move a bit faster.
Overall the day at Efteling was a lot of fun and a great window into a truly Dutch destination (there were very few tourists…). This week involved a lot of “early” mornings and long travel days, so it was nice to let loose for a few hours and experience something new!
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