Embracing User-Generated Content for a Superior User Experience: Learning from "Brandflip"

Destination Marketing Organisations (DMOs) or tourism boards serve a vital role as promoters of unique travel experiences. Their mission? Tell the story of their city, town or region as the destination for locals and tourists worldwide. If you're reading this, you likely represent a DMO, so there's no room for modesty in marketing your location. But amid a sea of competing DMOs all vying for the attention of potential visitors, how do you distinguish yourself? What makes your destination worth visiting? Among myriad answers, one strategy stands out: accessibility.

Understanding Accessibility for DMOs

At its core, accessibility means ensuring that anyone can enjoy your destination quickly. It might seem like a no-brainer for a tourism board, but achieving this can take time and effort. For instance, a city needing more wheelchair-friendly infrastructure, braille signage indoors, or non-accessible historical monuments present barriers to specific individuals. Even minor impediments, like cobblestone streets, can significantly affect people with disabilities. That's why accessibility matters to DMOs. If your destination isn't accessible, it can turn an anticipated travel experience into a disappointing ordeal for disabled individuals. Therefore, accessibility is all about eliminating barriers and facilitating enjoyment for all, regardless of ability or disability.

Rethinking Accessibility: Beyond Ramps and Handrails

If your idea of accessibility is limited to ramps and handrails, you're overlooking a host of other factors that contribute to making a destination genuinely accessible. Think braille indoor signs, tactile maps, dyslexia-friendly signage, and information comprehensible to those with limited English proficiency. Consider aspects like lighting, colour contrast, road surfaces, and other environmental elements that can affect those with disabilities. These often-overlooked details can make a difference, so when marketing your destination, remember that accessibility extends far beyond ramps and handrails.

The Importance of Accessibility for DMOs

Accessibility is crucial for DMOs for two main reasons. Firstly, it's a matter of fundamental human rights—no one should be excluded from enjoying a destination due to a disability. Every person deserves the opportunity to explore your city or town. Secondly, it's a sound business strategy. The disabled community represents a substantial yet frequently ignored market. And it's not just about tourism—employment opportunities are often overlooked as well. Thus, DMOs can tap into this lucrative market by enhancing the accessibility of their destinations. Statistics show that households with disabled individuals have an average annual income of $50,000 higher than the general population! By boosting accessibility, you can appeal to this demographic, potentially increasing tourism rates and improving your city's reputation.

Making Your Destination Accessible

If you're a DMO aiming to enhance your destination's accessibility, several measures must be taken. Ensure proper signage across the city, wheelchair-friendly paths, parking lots, and public transportation. Indoor spaces should have suitable lighting and be free of glare. Braille signs should be installed where necessary. Design elements should include colour contrast, and your website should be accessible. If you're a DMO neglecting accessibility, it's time for a change. Embrace accessibility now for long-term benefits and to welcome a more diverse group of visitors.

In Conclusion

As a destination marketing organisation, prioritising accessibility is crucial. By doing so, you can ensure that people with disabilities can enjoy your city, making it easier for all visitors to navigate and spend money in your location. In essence, enhancing accessibility is a win-win scenario. So, how will you make your destination accessible? Hopefully, this article has given you some insights into making your city more accessible.

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Introduction

Great stories can be powerful tools in the world of UX, but only some are natural storytellers. Thankfully, you can learn to create captivating user narratives. This article provides two essential suggestions to improve your storytelling: using the story triangle principle and the story-mountain template. 

[Image suggestion: An illustration of a story triangle and story mountain side by side.]

Understanding the Story Triangle

The story triangle illustrates the relationship between the story, the storyteller, and the audience. A successful story is a dialogue, not a monologue. Each audience may interpret the same story differently based on their unique experiences.

[Image suggestion: A simple diagram of the story triangle, with labels for story, storyteller, and audience.]

Example of a User Narrative 

Consider a narrative about user Mary, who must decide between taking a bus or a taxi to the central station after a late-night event. We propose a bus-tracking app that could compete with ride-sharing apps and promote public transportation. The audience can make various inferences based on their experiences while listening to the story.

 [Image suggestion: A comic strip-style illustration of Mary deciding between a bus and a taxi, with thought bubbles showing different audience members' interpretations.]

Audience Participation and Finding the Right Detail

Audience participation can enrich the storytelling experience, but it can also lead to misunderstandings. It's essential to balance providing too few and too many details in user-experience stories. Adjust the number of facts based on your objectives and the story's purpose. [Image suggestion: A balance scale showing "Too few details" on one side and "Too many details" on the other.]

The Story-Mountain Template

The story-mountain template is a visual representation of a time-tested story structure, helping guide the audience through exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.

[Image suggestion: A diagram of the story-mountain template with labels for each stage.]

Applying the Story-Mountain Template in UX

Use the story-mountain template to create user narratives for your internal team. Start by introducing the problem or goal, then raise the main character (e.g., Mary) and provide relevant details about their background. Describe their experience using the product or service, highlighting the benefits or challenges they face. Finally, suggest a resolution or path to improvement. 

[Image suggestion: A storyboard of the story-mountain stages applied to the Mary bus-tracking app example.]

Conclusion: 

Stories are vital to effective UX design, but it's essential to tell them in a way that resonates with the audience. The story-mountain approach is one way to achieve this. For more storytelling techniques in the UX context, consider taking a training course on storytelling to present UX work.

References:

• Bunting, Joe (2020). Freytag's Pyramid: Definition, Examples, and How to Use This Weird Structure in Your Writing. The Write Practice. Retrieved March 28, 2022.
• Lupton, Ellen (2018). Storytelling is Design. Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.
• Quesenbery, W., & Brooks, K. (2011). Storytelling for User Experience. Sebastopol: Rosenfeld Media.

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