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How the design of Disney parks affects our perspective (2020)
- 4878241143 3y agoRelated Wendover doc I found interesting on this sort of thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oESoI6XxZTg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oESoI6XxZTg
- giantrobot 3y agoThere's another trick used at Disneyland (I'm not sure about the other parks) is there's very few long lines of sight in the park. The walkways connecting the lands have curves with trees and theme elements blocking your line of sight on the inside of the curve. The short sight lines help keep everything in view the same theme so you're not jolted out of the "Land" you're in. It also helps keep the park from looking full. A majority of the park's crowd is outside of your line of sight at any given time. Notice how crowded Main Street or New Orleans Square feels during a show/parade vs five minutes after it's over. You'd think the crowd got bussed out of the park. It's even cleverer when combined with the forced perspective so the short sight lines never really look short. The forced perspective of nearby buildings tricks you into thinking distant buildings are farther away than they are.
- hammock 3y agoSame principle is used when designing subdivision neighborhoods
- msandford 3y agoThere's another reason that this is done. It's to separate the different copies of the characters. There are multiple of all of them in every park, but by keeping the sight lines contained like this there can be 9 Mickey's all over and you can never see two at the same time.
- ohwellhere 3y agoI took my kids to Disney last year for the first time. We went to go see Anna and Elsa. The line moved fairly quickly, and the group ahead of us went in through a closed door. Almost immediately the door opened again and we were pulled through. Rather than seeing the princesses, we were in a hallway of the house with ~8 doors, and immediately shuffled into one of them where the princesses now were. On the way through, I tongue-in-cheek asked the attendant what was behind the other doors. "Broom closets."
- SoftTalker 3y agoYou are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
- mcphage 3y agoI've heard there's only ever 1 Mickey in a park at a given time, but I don't think it's true for other characters.
- vianneychevalie 3y agoCan confirm, there’s only one Mickey, they time their exits and entrances and have a park coordinator (mostly women under the Mickey costume, by the way, because of costume size categories).
- joezydeco 3y agoI took the backstage tour at WDW and they were proud to point out that they even balance the background music between lands to create a subtle transition and not jolt you from one theme to the next. Even the placement of walkway and landscaping elements is a gradient from one to the other.
- ant6n 3y agoHow do they do it, like the imuse system of in mokey island 2, where different music layers get added and removed as you move aeound? (See https://youtu.be/7N41TEcjcvM https://youtu.be/7N41TEcjcvM)
- joezydeco 3y agoAs I recall that was pretty much it. Directed speakers, careful control of volume, etc. Anything better than that gets super complex.
- iamjackg 3y agoIt's not quite to that level, but they carefully study the acoustics and position all speakers so the transition is gradual and not jarring. They might also choose songs that have elements of both lands to use in areas close to the transition point. Semi-related: if you go on the Disneyland version of Pirates of the Caribbean, there is a short section of caves right between the first and second drop. The section only lasts maybe 10/15 seconds, but it's where you hear A Pirate's Life for Me for the first time in the entire ride as a kind of foreshadowing of what you will see later. Well, as soon as you go down the second drop, which is not that steep or long, the music is completely gone, and all you can hear is the atmospheric ambient music for the "main" cave section. I always found that incredibly fascinating, since you can turn around and see the previous area, but you cannot hear the music at all. EDIT: there is actually something that is closer to iMuse, at least the way it was implemented in the Special Edition. Their parade routes are divided into multiple zones, and the soundtrack is equally divided in sections for each float. They use a positioning system to determine where each float is, and feed the correct section of the soundtrack to that speaker zone. It works incredibly well, and you don't notice it at all while you're there. Listen to the soundtrack for the Paint the Night parade for an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoIpk9F_Okk&pp=ygUhcGFpbnQgdGhlIG5pZ2h0IHBhcmFkZSBzb3VuZHRyYWNr https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoIpk9F_Okk&pp=ygUhcGFpbnQgd... Each section is basically the same length, the whole thing is (mostly) in the same exact key, of course it's the same BPM across the board, and each section has an intro/outro that can act as transition points to mix into the next section. They can also, of course, loop ad libitum if the parade were to stop for a few minutes. Really cool stuff!
- dhosek 3y agoThings are also designed so that in Disneyland you cannot see any structure outside of the park (although I think there might be some part where you can see some high-tension power lines). It was a mix of design and strong-arming the zoning commission of Anaheim.
- giantrobot 3y agoThat is a very impressive aspect. After reading about the sight lines at Disneyland however many years ago, I've started actively looking for them when I've visited. It's impressive what you can't see but know must be there (power lines, access tunnels, etc).
- apocalyptic0n3 3y agoOn a related note, if you're ever playing a sandbox game that lets you build and are wondering how to make your builds look better: this is rule number 1. In Minecraft, don't allow for seeing anything further than 20-25 blocks away (which also means very few straight paths). Block the view with anything and your base will magically start feeling much bigger, much more immersive, and become something you actively want to walk around.
- yowzadave 3y agoIt’s interesting to note the similarities between theme park design and video game design—both involved worlds that appear “realistic”, but feature many of these tricks to make them more entertaining, more easily navigable, more conducive to discovery. In both cases, the worlds can feel “big”, but a are in reality much compressed from what their real-life dimensions would be, to keep people from getting bored/tired while moving about. Both involve intentional variety/uniqueness, features of interest at regular intervals, shortcut travel methods, landscape features to encourage travel to desired locations, etc. In many ways, this kind of design thinking could be useful in designing real-world spaces as well.
- bmitc 3y ago> In many ways, this kind of design thinking could be useful in designing real-world spaces as well. They already are used. The difference in urban design, which is what I assume you mean by real-world spaces, is that in theme parks and video games, the designers effectively have complete control over the entire system from top tp bottom and bittom to top. In urban design, that is not the case and one needs to deal with decades and centuries old organic, ad-hoc design and evolution of the urban system.
- philwelch 3y agoThis is exactly the thought process that led Walt Disney to want to build a planned charter city in Florida, the “Experimental Prototype City Of Tomorrow” (EPCOT), inside of Disney World. The plan didn’t survive his death, but the extraordinary legal privileges required to build a charter city survived until very recently.
- hammock 3y agoFlorida has The Villages now
- Dalewyn 3y agoI'm always amused at how "cities" in games are often just three to five houses, one or two general stores, and an inn/hotel. Like, I get it, but sometimes the suspension of logic can get a bit challenging. :V
- opyate 3y agoRelated: Potemkin village. The wiki article links (via "see also") to "disneyfication". https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potemkin_village https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potemkin_village
- nbevans 3y agoIt's possible to use Google Street View (or at least, panorama photographs that have been shared with Google) in some locations of the Disney parks and for some reason none of the faces have been blurred. However everyone looks thoroughly miserable in these photos. I wonder if it's because of the amount of walking involved, or if its because they've realised they essentially got scammed out of thousands of dollars for a multi-week holiday in hell?
- hospitalJail 3y agoThe longer I live, the more I wonder if traveling is something people actually enjoy. (And this is much worse, since its this faux-traveling) There is quite a bit of pain from simply moving your body long distances. The reward must make up for this. Beautiful views are the least rewarding part, those moments are fleeting, and there are plenty of more beautiful things you can see on your phone without leaving your bed. This is basically the goal of Disney, throw in some short physical hedonism from rides, and that is the experience. Only thing I'm missing is that having your own children smile will cause some intense pleasure thanks to biology. However, call me a Platonist, but the best part of traveling is the knowledge. I remember physically feeling awful during my travels in Europe. The transportation was long, the food was so small portions I felt ill (until I learned you could get tuna sandwiches everywhere[Weight lifter walking 12+ hrs/day]), and outside the Sistine chapel, I had seen these views before. However looking back on it, and my favorite moments was learning about the history and learning about the area. Being physically able to walk from Aurelian walls to the colosseum and the forum was enlightening. A history book couldn't teach me this. Traveling physically hurts, but it doesn't mean it wont be looked back fondly.
- iamjackg 3y agoType II fun: https://www.rei.com/blog/climb/fun-scale https://www.rei.com/blog/climb/fun-scale I'm curious why you consider going to Disney faux-traveling. It's an opinion I hear often (and I once held) but everybody seems to get there for different reasons.
- Arelius 3y agoWow, you really don't like travelling do you? For what it's worth, I don't think your experience is universal. Fair enough, walking around all day does create some bodily discomfort, but personally I walk around in my home city a lot. So I'm pretty used to that and the discomfort is generally minor. But in particular, you seem to not have a particularly good time with the food while travelling, which for me is often the best part of traveling while there, and the most memorable after the fact. In some ways, I travel to eat, and maybe that's a common alternative to your experience, to be fair, I think I'd like traveling far less if the food was generally bad.
- brk 3y agoInsane attention to detail goes into every part of the park. I worked on a technology project for one of the attractions mentioned in the article, and a constant theme of the meetings and implementation was the guest experience and maintaining the feel of immersion. Lots of customization and fabrication went into anything that could be potentially visible to guests.
- Aeolun 3y agoIt’s amazing how the entirety of Disney Sea in Japan contains a grand total of 3 vending machines in an out of the way corner of the park. Every other park is filled with them, so you never lack for something to drink. I’m still not sure whether I’m impressed or annoyed.
- cainxinth 3y agoVending machines at venues are great for convenience, but reduce opportune for upselling. Which is why I find it annoying when movie theaters don’t have them. 90% of the time, I just want a bottle of water. But they are determined to make me wait in a line in the hopes that I’ll buy some candy and popcorn, too.
- mmcconnell1618 3y agoI recently visited Disney Sea and found it very strange that food carts (10+ popcorn flavors each in different carts) never sold drinks. They were 1 item only. Popcorn or ice cream or nuts but only that 1 item. Drinks were only available at the very few vending machines or at full restaurants. I think they are missing a big upsell opportunity.
- TheCleric 3y agoIt's the unix philosophy applied to food service: do one thing, and one thing well. (Whether they have lived up to the second part of that is in the eye of the beholder).
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- Daub 3y agoI would dispute the title. "How the design of Disney parks affects our perspective" should really be "How the design of Disney parks affects our perception of space" There is no such thing as 'our' perspective any more than there is an 'our' laws of physics. Perspective is immutable. The perspective of now will be the same for everyone in one million years time.
- scarface_74 3y agoWell actually… https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abnormal-perception-of-size-in-forest-dwelling-people/655462 https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abnormal-perception-of-siz... > In summary, a 22 year old Mbuti man named Kenge accompanied Turnbull on a drive to the mountains. Kenge had supposedly never left the Ituri forest before. On seeing some buffalo in the distance, he mistook them for insects. As the car approached and their apparent size increased, Kenge became confused as to how they transformed into buffalo. He made the same mistake with a boat at some distance on a lake, thinking it was a small piece of wood. > Turnbull’s explanation was that, having spent his life in the forest, Kenge had not been exposed to large vistas and so had never acquired the ability to adjust his percpetion of size for distant objects. This explanation seems to be accepted without question; I’ve read it in a psychology textbook and, I think, in one of Oliver Sacks’ books.
- Daub 3y agoThis excellent anecdotes refers to the perception of space. As a proud possessor of monocular vision, I think a lot about spatial perception. Also a huge fan of Oliver Sacks and also A. R. Luria (neurology) and Rudolf Arnheim (perceptual psychologist and artist). However, perspective is a different issue. Specifically, it is a mathematical model for projecting 3D space onto a 2D plane. This seems like a quible, but as someone who teaches perspective, I have a lot of trouble with people coming to my class with a misunderstanding of what it is. 3 point perspective is not the only spatial system out there, but it is the one that has had most impact upon European art, and it is also the most exact. It has not changed a bit since it was invented by Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Haytham 1,000 years ago, and it is likely not to have changed even when we all have devolved into radioactive lizard rats in 1,000,000 years time.
- josefresco 3y agoI was always impressed by their "two line" system where there's a visible short line outside of the ride and then once you've spent 30-40 min in that line, you turn the corner and are shown the real line which is another 40-60 min wait. For really popular rides, there's sometimes 3 line tiers.
- dividefuel 3y agoI was just at Disney and noticed this too. Their rides are also designed to quickly load and unload people, so their lines are always moving relatively quickly. The lines also don't always follow a simple switchback path, so it's easy to lose track of where you are in the line. This all makes waiting a little less discouraging.
- simmonmt 3y agoUniversal Florida does this really "well" with their Hagrids ride. There's an outside part, then you wander around in a room, and only then discover the real line -- the three days you'll spend wandering around in tunnels with no sight lines to help you figure out how far along you are.