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Bad design ideas, con hotel edition
Dec. 2nd, 2020 05:31 pmBack in 2013, one of the losing bids for the 2015 Worldcon had wanted to hold it at a hotel in Walt Disney World. Although I'm a big fan of the Disney theme parks, this seemed like a bad idea. It would mean wrangling several thousand fans at the height of summer tourist season into a space which is essentially isolated in terms of walking anywhere.
OTOH, the bid did have a point that there were some advantages to WDW, like the fact that Orlando is cheap to fly to from anywhere and proximity to the parks allowed for essentially two vacations in one. It struck me that a Smofcon at WDW would be fun. Instead of a big con in the summer, you're talking 100-200 highly organized people on the first weekend in December, which is traditionally one of the lowest-attendance times at WDW.
I still lack both the social capital and the broad experience necessary to pull off a Smofcon bid, so this will always be just a daydream.
Anyway, MousePlanet has an article today with Disney historian Jim Korkis interviewing Michael Graves, the architect who designed WDW's main convention hotels, the Swan and Dolphin. It's all fine until this exchange:
Aaaaah nooooo you want people to be able to get to their convention program items without having to spend a bunch of excess energy figuring out how to find things. Just like you want your Web site to let people accomplish their tasks without creating extra friction for them.
So, note for my daydream, extra signage or more information ahead of time for members about how to find the con functions.
OTOH, the bid did have a point that there were some advantages to WDW, like the fact that Orlando is cheap to fly to from anywhere and proximity to the parks allowed for essentially two vacations in one. It struck me that a Smofcon at WDW would be fun. Instead of a big con in the summer, you're talking 100-200 highly organized people on the first weekend in December, which is traditionally one of the lowest-attendance times at WDW.
I still lack both the social capital and the broad experience necessary to pull off a Smofcon bid, so this will always be just a daydream.
Anyway, MousePlanet has an article today with Disney historian Jim Korkis interviewing Michael Graves, the architect who designed WDW's main convention hotels, the Swan and Dolphin. It's all fine until this exchange:
JK: The Dolphin and Swan have similarities but are very different. I find the Dolphin to be disorienting.
MG: That was a deliberate choice because it was to be a hotel for conventions and when you attend conventions, what do you want the participants to do? You want them to think differently, to see things from a different perspective. So the design is encouraging that.
JK: To really "think out of the box" as they say.
MG: Exactly. Most people are right-handed but the check-in desk is on the left. The rotunda is disorienting because there are no landmarks or icons so the person will have to really concentrate on what direction to go.
Aaaaah nooooo you want people to be able to get to their convention program items without having to spend a bunch of excess energy figuring out how to find things. Just like you want your Web site to let people accomplish their tasks without creating extra friction for them.
So, note for my daydream, extra signage or more information ahead of time for members about how to find the con functions.
