Design

Theme Park Field Tools

Design Techniques

Experiential Design Techniques

The Five Senses

  • Sight
  • Sound
  • Smell
  • Touch
  • Feelies
  • Taste

Opposition

Pacing

Rationing

Controlled Choice

Toyness

Managing Expectation

Payoff

The Wow

Repeatability

  • Motivating Additions
  • Placemaking
  • Detailing
  • Readability
  • Promotions

Spatial Design Techniques

Stratification

  • Space Management
  • Peaking
  • False Portals

Forced Perspective

Trompe L’Oeil

Space Management

  • Maximum Impact, Minimum Space
  • Shaping
  • Future-Proofing

Disorientation

Multileveling

Multiperspection

Interweaving

Off-Center Gates

Story Design Techniques

Media Apathy

Communicative Inefficiency

Cumulative Immersion

Suggestion

Wilder-Side Depiction

Wider-Time Depiction

Visual Design Techniques

Detailing

  • Standards
  • Richness
  • Meaning
    • History
    • Jokes
    • Easter Eggs

Directed Viewing

  • Focus
  • Sightlines
  • Pointing

Cocktail Party

Visual Conflict

Kinetics

Theme Aging

Themed Design

Intrusions

Extrusions

Context

Stylistic Consistency

Stylistic Separation

Conceits

Collage

Weighting

Neutrality

Viewing Window

Implied Theming

Post-Theming

Project Design

  • Organicity
  • Longevity
  • Maintainability
  • Splitting the Check
  • Double Duty
  • Putting Money on the Walls
  • Illusionary Completion
  • Acquisition
  • Redundancy
  • Reuse
  • Kit-of-Parts

Design Disciplines

Color

Color Schemes

Rationing through Color

Blending through Color

Heightening Color

Light

Color Effects

Lighting

Functional Lighting

Diegetic Lighting

Show Lighting

  • Focus
  • Concealment
  • Shape
  • Mood
  • Setting
  • Story

Lighting Quality

  • Type
  • Color
  • Intensity
  • Direction
  • Focus

Lighting Effects

Materials

Graphics

Style Guide

Logos

Typography

Signage

  • Directional Signage
  • Identification Signage
  • Informational Signage
  • Safety Signage
  • Thematic Signage
  • Diegetic Signage
  • Semi-Diegetic Signage
  • Extra-Diegetic Signage

Posters

Murals

Eyewash

Music

Sound Effects

Incidental Sound

Speakers

Sound Bleed

Media

Props

Interruption

Special Effects

Illusioneering

Illusioneering Principles

  • Cause and Effect
  • Combining Illusions
  • Misdirection
  • More Trouble Than It’s Worth
  • Technology

Atmospheric Illusions

  • Dry-for-Wet Bubbles
  • Dry-for-Wet Waterfall
  • Fire
  • Lava
  • Starfield
  • Suction

Character Illusions

  • Dementor Attack
  • Disappearing Monster
  • Following Burst
  • Following Character
  • Following Eyes
  • Hitchhiking Ghosts
  • Talking Busts
  • Transforming Reflection

Creature Illusions

  • Bug Seats
  • Buzzing Bees
  • Fireflies
  • Jumping Fish
  • Piranha Swarm
  • Stinger

Ride Illusions

  • Binaural Sound
  • Creatures Pushing the Ride Vehicle
  • Reversing Ride Vehicle
  • Ride Vehicle Steam
  • Shrinking Ride Vehicles
  • Trommel Tunnel

Scene Illusions

  • Alternating Doors
  • Bouncing room
  • Disappearing Room
  • Disappearing Wall
  • Endless Hallway
  • Exploding Walls
  • False Elevators
  • Mirror Walls
  • Stretching Room
  • Water Vortex

Set Illusions

  • Birdseye View Traffic
  • Bottomless Pit
  • Changing Patterns
  • Changing Portrait
  • Collapsing Ceiling
  • Crash-Landing Plane
  • Crushing Machine
  • Dancing Shoes
  • Dimensional Door
  • Disappearing Butterfly
  • Disappearing Idol
  • Disappearing Text
  • Endless Conveyor
  • Endless Machine
  • Flying Plane
  • Glass Smash
  • Hovering Faucet
  • Leaking Barrels
  • Multiplying Mirror
  • Never-Ending Drink
  • Pepper’s Ghost
  • Portable Hole
  • Projectile Blast
  • Silhouettes Across the Moon
  • Tall Water Fountain
  • Teleportation Tube
  • Train Crash

Animation Illusions

  • Chasing Animatronics
  • Dexterous Animatronics
  • Fighting Elk
  • Lassoing Animatronic
  • Log Running Animatronic
  • Lumiere Animatronic
  • Rocking Chair Animatronic
  • Smoking Animatronic
  • Swinging Animatronic
  • Unicycling Animatronic

Interactivity

Fake Interactivity

Response-Feedback Interactivity

Arcade Interactivity

Recollective Interactivity

Interpersonal Interactivity

Hands-On Interactivity

User-Generated Interactivity

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)

Personalization

Updated: June 8, 2022 2:49 pm

Dennis Cheatham

Associate Professor, Communication Design

Miami University

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