A rule-based servicescape design support system from the design patterns of theme parks
Introduction
For leisure spaces such as theme parks, a determining factor that influences customer experience and the level of visitor satisfaction is servicescape [19], [15], [41]. Servicescape of a theme park is a multi-layered and a complex system that represents a diverse set of service units such as restaurants, shops, attractions, and designs of the physical environments [41]. As a compound system, the servicescape of a theme park is usually designed heuristically during the planning phase, and adjusted and coordinated under strict guidelines during the management phase [19], [14], [41]. However, only a few large theme park operators have a separate team of specialists with the heuristic knowledge for servicescaping that helps to maintain the original identity of a theme park while adjusting and modifying [14], [41]. In general, most theme park operators do not have the resources to organize a separate team of specialties. Rather, these small companies turn to the specialists paying high fees and royalties, usually leading to outdated or degraded servicescapes [19]. To help small companies provide satisfying experience to the visitors, a systematical understanding of the multi-layered and complex service environment of theme parks is necessary.
One of the methods that can systematically represent such complex and compound service unit is the concept of a rule-based system (RBS). According to Ligeza [26], a fundamental concept of rule-based system (RBS) is that it is a set of rules shaping the behavior of man, society or machine. While it serves as a specification tool of knowledge in design and implementation tool for knowledge-based systems (KBS) in applied Artificial Intelligence and Knowledge Engineering, it also provides a universal programming paradigm for domains such as system monitoring, and intelligent control, and decision support [26]. The development of decision support systems is one of the most successful and useful application of the RBS [26]. In addition, during a design process, designers often refer to the precedents as guidance for design decision making [31], [16], [32], [11], [2]. Precedents are known to be “a significant source of knowledge in the creative process of design” helping designers to discover solutions from relevant past designs [31]. Many researchers have conducted research to assist such precedent-based design process, helping designers to browse through precedents [12], [16], [32], [11]. One of the main reasons for the usage of precedents is because “design reasoning based on precedents can save designers the time and effort needed to generate new design solutions from scratch” helping the designers to avoid “the problem of ‘reinventing the wheel’ and reach satisfactory design solutions with relative ease and speed“ [11]. In other words, the usage of precedents during the design process can eliminate the process of redesigning from the problems faced previously. While precedent-based design process is common for product designs, architectural designs, and urban designs, it has not yet been adopted for servicescape designs even though “service providers spend millions of dollars each year designing, building, and refurbishing service settings” [5]. A possible reason why service providers do not use servicescape precedents even though they end up spending millions of dollars each year refurbishing service setting is because while there have been many top-down theoretical types of research for modeling frameworks on how to represent servicescape [6], [27], there have been only a few research that attempts to represent and index servicescape features. Wakefield and Blodgett [45]’s work where the authors have qualitatively expressed the difference between the servicescape factors of two Major League Baseball (MLB) stadiums—Cincinnati’s Riverfront Stadium and Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium using the servicescape frameworks [45].
The purpose of the research is to execute a bottom-up approach in which the design patterns of servicescape are identified and organized into knowledge through these precedent patterns, to propose a rule-based design support system for its application to servicescape design process, and to confirm whether if the system helps to increase designers’ credence regarding their design in terms of its market success—the consistent visitor rate—given that the system helps designers to make decisions using the pattern found in theme parks with high annual attendance count. To accomplish these research aims, following six procedures are carried out: (1) selection of globally accepted facilities for being successful, (2) analysis of precedents for the discovery of repeating servicescape design patterns, (3) knowledge acquisition and organization for each design patterns, (4) formulation of servicescape rules using the acquired and organized knowledge, (5) integration of the rules into a general design process of a facility, and (6) application of the system in practice.
We chose four representative theme parks of Walt Disney Attractions (The Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, Tokyo Disneyland, Disneyland in Anaheim, and Disneyland Paris) for analysis and identification of repeating design patterns to derive the servicescape rules. We found three design patterns and for each pattern, case knowledge was collected and organized so that it could be turned into rules. The rules were then integrated into the general design process of facility as a system (Servicescape Design Support System, SSDSS). The resulting system was presented to an expert in the field of theme park designs to confirm whether the design process is applicable and how it will perform in practice. From this interview, we received positive feedbacks and well as feedbacks for improvements in the aspects of the system’s applicability in practice, its functionality, and usability. After confirming the applicability of the overall process of the system, we conducted an experiment to experts in practice from various design and planning fields and asked to go through two sets of scenarios where the first is to design a given site without the system and the second is to design the same site with the system. After each scenario, the subjects were asked to fill out a revised After-Scenario Questionnaire (ASQ) [25].
Section snippets
Reasoning systems from design patterns
A design pattern is a design that appears in our environment over and over as a manmade solution to a problem evolving [4]. This fundamental idea is the reason why the concept of a design pattern, although not explicitly said, is embedded as knowledge in many design support systems such as expert systems and case-based reasoning systems. For instance, an expert system is a system that captures the knowledge acquired from experts (design patterns) and provide the user with the previous knowledge
Selection of representative theme parks
As previously mentioned, theme parks are cases of leisure services to investigate well-designed servicescape and the design patterns for rules. Many theme parks exist but according to Global Attractions Attendance Report [42] published by Themed Entertainment Association (TEA), theme parks of Walt Disney Attractions outperform (double the attendance of theme parks of Merlin Entertainments Group) all other theme park groups as can be seen in Table 2. One of the reasons for their outstanding
Expert interview
To test the validity of the overall process of the proposed rule-based servicescape design support system (SSDSS) in practice which guides a designer through the drawing stage shown in Fig. 6, we demonstrated our system to an expert who has experience in designing theme parks. Then, we interviewed the expert afterward regarding the applicability, functionality, and usability of the system as summarized in Table 5.
For the applicability of the system into practice, since the system has the basic
Conclusion
The purpose of this research was to execute a bottom-up approach in which the design patterns of servicescape were identified and organized into knowledge through precedent patterns, to propose a rule-based design support system for its application to servicescape design process, and to confirm whether if the system helps to increase designers’ credence in their design in terms of its market success. From the research, the findings are two folds. The first concerns the design patterns found in
Acknowledgements
This research was funded by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) as a part of the project ‘Development of Case-based Reasoning System for the Design and the Evaluation of Theme Park Environment and Service Design’. This research would not have been possible without the funding.
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