Creative Works President, Armando Lanuti, explains best practices on the way an entertainment facility should be designed for the maximum WOW effect.


Welcome to another 360 insights video where we share actionable information and tips to help you open or run your entertainment facility.

Today, I wanna talk about creating that WOW experience that moment when you first walk in and you just go into the facility like “Man, I want to be here.” We do this everyday in our own lives every time we go to a restaurant, a retail environment, or an entertainment center whether it be a competitor in another city, we immediately judge it. You need to realize that everybody is going to do that to your facility as well.

Typically, you have about eight seconds where a person will make up their mind on if they like something or not.

So, a couple things to keep in mind there is, as you’re designing the layout, the flow of where things are at, first of all, most people are gonna pan from right to left as they walk into a space. So as you’re determining where your front counter should be, where your bathroom should be, where your attractions are, you’re going to want to keep that in mind from a flow just for that natural tendency that every human being will typically have.

From that standpoint you also want to ensure that you have an open and airy design with clear sight lines to all of your attractions. A lot of facilities will go with a hub and spoke model where, as I walk in as I look out into the distance, I can see that there’s laser tag over there, there’s mini golf, there’s bumper cars, there’s bowling, and then throughout that space I’ve got the arcade and other things greeting me as I walk in and getting me excited about the ability to play in that space and to spend some time and obviously we want them to spend money.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you want to target big, bold colors. Things that they’re not necessarily going to see at home or in other environments. You want to set yourself apart. In doing so, you also need to make sure that you keep mom in mind.

Just fact of the matter: Mom makes eighty percent of the purchasing and entertainment decisions for the typical family here in America. Because of that, you want to ensure that you have appropriate lighting in your space, pay careful attention to things like bathrooms and kitchen areas, make sure that things are inviting.

Typically, design with curves and an organic feel to a space will normally engender yourself a little bit more to that demographic as she is trying to determine where she wants to have her next family event, the next birthday party or even when she’s making arrangements for potentially booking a corporate event or an outing and those kind of things.

So, we hope this helps. Tune in next time for more tips and get after it!