9 Ways to Improve Queueing

The more popular your institution is, the more you have to deal with lines.

Waiting.

…

Is.

…

No.

…

Fun.

…

But queueing can be improved. Theme parks make queue design into an art.

Here are nine possibilities:

1. Don’t Have a Line:
Digital pre-purchase, timed tickets, and text alerts can reduce or eliminate lines.

2. Line as Pre-Show:
Introduce key themes visitors will explore inside.

3. Line as First Exhibition Gallery:
The first gallery is designed to have the queue in it. Intro wall, artifacts, videos, you name it.

4. Line as Short Subject:
The line is its own story experience, like a short before a feature film.

5. Add Bite-Sized Content:
Put little quotes, images, or trivia along the line. Show-related, or not.

6. Work the Line:
Train greeters to circulate, answer questions, tell jokes.

7. Add Interactivity:
Simple games, polls, or selfie spots along the way make waiting active.

8. Add Progress Markers:
“Usual wait time from this point: 3 minutes.”

9. Digital Tidbits:
QR codes linking to short videos deepen context while waiting.

Here’s the thing:
Popularity breeds lines. But we can make them better — maybe so much that they don’t feel like lines at all.

Warmly,
Jonathan

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MtM Word of the Day:
Queue. [pronounced "kyoo"] An impossible-to-spell British word for an ordered line of people awaiting their turn (aka “queueing”). The word is useful because “line” refers to too many other things. A queue does not have to be tedious; it can be improved by making it an experience unto itself.