User experience review of Granåsen Arena

The spectator experience

What happens 38 000 people and one of the biggest rock icons of our time meet at the ski arena? We conducted a review of the user experience of Granåsen Arena, using a Bruce Springsteen concert as the context.

Client

Trondheim Municipality

Year

2016

Project partners

Trondheim Concerts

Design Tasks

Insight research

Background

Granåsen is Trondheim´s arena for big winter sporting events, but it is also used to host some of the biggest concerts such as Bruce Springsteen. What is the spectator experience like, and what are the needs of a concert goer compared to a sports fan? How can the service be improved and adapted to different types of events at even larger scales? These were some of the questions Trondheim municipality wanted answered as a step towards the long term plan of revitalizing and rebuilding Granåsen skicenter.

Process

We looked at this spectator experience in terms of user journeys – looking at how the different interactions over time added up to the total experience, from hearing about the concert to the ride home again to the memories you keep afterwards. We tried to understand this experience from the perspective of different users.

By conducting semi-structured interviews with people with different levels of previous concert experience, age, interests physical handicaps etc., along with keen observation during the concert, we were able to identify several missed opportunities and areas of improvement. The overall insights was presented in a spectator journey map.

Mapping the experience

The map visualizes both the concert journey, the experience, and the insights gained into one holistic representation. This map became a tool for the municipality, as a constant reminder, discussion tool and reference, in order to keep user experience high up on the agenda when developing the area towards the planned rebuilding of the arena.

In addition the the map, we also made a more detailed review of specific pain points and opportunities were presented to the municipality and the concert organizer.

All in all it was a great concert and a really fun project to work on.