Case study:
Ocean Park – Smart Operations Project

STEP 1.

Learning Ocean Park’s Business

Ocean Park Hong Kong is one of the world’s most popular amusement parks. To ensure safety and deliver a high quality service, it is important for Ocean Park management to understand in real time the number of visitors and waiting times in different areas of the park. Traditionally, this type of information collection is done manually by park staff with walkie-talkies. It takes thirty minutes for park staff to collect, aggregate and report the numbers back to headquarters, and by that time, the situation has already changed. Solutions were needed to address this real world operational issue with a cost effective, user friendly and relevant mobile application.

STEP 2.

Identifying Mobile Challenges

• Identifying Data Collection Bottlenecks: 94% of companies participating in IoT projects expressed key challenges in data collection. Ocean Park was no exception.
• Gaining Internal User Support: Internal IT initiatives fail due to the lack end user support. Ocean Park’s audience spans across at least eight roles in their operations.
• Producing Meaningful Information: Equipping Ocean Park staff with meaningful information so they can make timely decisions with confidence was a big challenge.
• Addressing Park Operational Safety The popularity of the park and it’s uniquely elevated geography require tight staff coordination for emergency transport routes and safe pedestrian traffic flow between the upper and lower areas of the park.

STEP 3.

Finding Solutions

Motherapp worked with Ocean Park to develop PowerArena, an integrated mobile platform to enable timely collection, analysis and dissemination of guest flow information.

• Park data is collected in real time based on people counting algorithms on CCTV security cameras.
• In certain park locations, it is difficult to install the CCTV cameras, and in those cases, Ocean Park staff inputs the data manually through the PowerArena mobile app.
• In less than a minute, Ocean Park management and frontline staff can see the aggregated results on the PowerArena app.
• We also integrated built in rules to detect abnormal park situations. Management and frontline staff can now quickly identify and resolve these situations in real time through a messaging system within the PowerArena app.

STEP 4.

Assessing The Impact

• Immediate Access to Emergency Related Real Time Park Information: With the PowerArena app providing real time information about guest density in different areas of the park, staff can now efficiently plan the fastest emergency route through the park.
• Improved Guest Experience: Ride waiting time is a key concern for park guests. The PowerArena platform helps Ocean Park staff improve guest experience by understanding guest flow and ride wait times. This operational information allows staff to quickly open more lines or move guests to less crowded park areas.
• Greater Coordination and Collaboration: The PowerArena app improves coordination across different Ocean Park departments by providing critical park information through a single platform. PowerArena’s real time dashboard and internal messaging system increases staff collaboration and facilitates emergency coordination.
• Enterprise Wide Adoption: Employing our enterprise UX design methodology to fully understand Ocean Park’s needs enabled us to find solution designs that were widely adopted by both frontline staff and management.