Everyone can feel it, but very few are ready to acknowledge that the world as we know it has changed. Probably for good. We will have to face a new reality post COVID19 and most of us are not prepared to face that fact yet.

Judith Rubin looks at how the global visitor attractions industry will be impacted by the virus in her article "Thoughts on Experience Design in the age of COVID19". Her central hypothesis is that people and institutions will have a problem to trust each other. This will be especially clear when it comes to trusting that touch surfaces, like interactive screens, immersive experiences, rollercoaster rides, etc. become a way to contain and destroy the virus. This is of course grossly over simplified, but you get the idea of how we might be able to turn the COVID19 problem into an opportunity and in the process reduce the incidence of the common cold, flu and other viruses and bacteria.

Right now, people are identifying and pondering how the present global issue will affect their professions, but perhaps in true design thinking terms, we need to be thinking of how to reframe the question and ask ourselves:

“How might we use every participant in an experience to contribute to sterilizing the spaces and products used to create the experiences. “

For instance, what if every participant wore gloves impregnated with a sterilizing agent so that everyone contributes to sterilizing the visitor space and experience, rather than just a few cleaners a few times a day? Perhaps by contributing to create more clean environments this will help to reduce the amount of the virus. In this way we would be seeing the participants as part of the solution, rather than part of the problem. The same could apply to shopping.

Design Thinking is well suited to adapting to change, understanding user needs and reframing the problem.

Instead of seeing mass gatherings as a problem/low trust environments, perhaps we could turn them into safe spaces where we contribute to reducing the virus?

Using Design Thinking ask yourself: How might your experience/product/service challenges contribute to a cleaner, safer environment and contribute to reducing the number of COVID19 patients?

Judith Rubin is right about one fact. Your priorities have changed and like it or not, providing a safe environment for your guests has just gone from a top 10 priority to the number one priority for your design team to attract visitors back to your organization post the COVID19 pandemic.