People wander off intended paths created by city planners & architects all the time. (Whoops, guilty!) In fact, people do it so often that these professionals have a phrase for it: desire lines. Desire lines are a visible, tangible reminder of how decision makers fail to understand human behavior.

And yet, some genius planners use these desire lines to their advantage: instead of building sidewalks, they let people wander, and this wandering naturally forms trails in the grass. Only then (once the desired paths have been established) do they lay the sidewalks on top of those paths.

What the heck does this have to do with your tour, experience, activity, or property?

So often, hosts & operators create experiences without any real understanding of the desired path people wish to take. And if you don’t know your guests' end desires, how can you build a experience that moves them towards it?

You can use (metaphorical) desire lines as a blueprint for experience design. “Begin with the end in mind” is more than just a nice saying. A line implies that there is a point A and a point B, and if you don’t know what that point B is, anything that comes before it is just guesswork.

Stop guessing!

Most people don't wear their desires on their sleeve, but if you study human behavior long enough, collective patterns do emerge. And that's one of the things we'll be spending a lot of time on in next month's workshop!

Join me March 15th for a highly intimate & interactive workshop where you will learn to 'architect' experiences that draw in high-value guests. You will also get access to my journey mapping storyboard tool that makes creating immersive experiences EASY.

Let's co-create an experience that people can't stop talking about! 🎉

​