Transitioned DEI global’s digital experience from a a back-end imaging tool (a desktop application) to a multi-channel customer experience
DEI currently operates in 143 locations across 16 countries, as an imaging solution used at tourist attractions. They had a B2B desktop solution that allowed customers to purchase images through POS systems on site. I led a team of over 6 product designers, and we were collectively responsible for not only setting the vision and experience strategy, but also supported the development of a native app, responsive website and self-service kiosks.
THE CHALLENGE
DEI Global operates at 143 tourist attractions across 16 countries — amusement parks, aquariums, theme parks — capturing guests' most memorable moments and selling them as images and keepsakes. For years, their technology had been built entirely for the staff who operated it: a desktop B2B application used by employees at a counter, where guests queued to collect and purchase their photos before leaving.
The experience was functional. It was also a significant commercial and experiential missed opportunity.
Guests who had just had one of the best days of their lives were ending it in a queue. Photos were only accessible at a specific physical location. There was no way to browse, purchase, or share from anywhere else. And for a product that was fundamentally about capturing joy and memory — the experience of getting your photos felt like admin.
DEI's ambition was to change all of that: to transform from a B2B imaging tool into the global leader in capturing guests' memorable experiences, across a native app, responsive website, and self-service kiosks — while also overhauling the staff-facing tools that powered it all.
MY ROLE
I was Associate UX Director on this engagement, leading the experience design strategy alongside the UX Director. My work was concentrated in the discovery phase and strategic definition — conducting ethnographic research across multiple venues, running user interviews with both guests and park staff, mapping the full emotional journey across the pre-park, in-park, and post-park experience, and defining the phased MVP to vision strategy that was ultimately presented to DEI's CEO and Board.
The execution was handed to a specialist delivery team. My responsibility was to define the direction clearly enough that it could be built without me in the room — and to get it approved at the highest level.
WHAT MADE THE BRIEF UNUSUAL
Most digital products have one user, one context, and one primary surface. DEI had six.
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Guests planning their day before they arrived.
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Guests capturing moments in real time during the visit — on a rollercoaster, underwater at an aquarium, at the top of a drop tower.
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Guests browsing and purchasing after the adrenaline had faded.
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Staff operating the system across an entire park in all weather conditions.
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Operations teams managing venues across 16 countries in multiple languages and currencies.
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And kiosk interfaces that had to work on a touchscreen in a water park just as well as in a climate-controlled gift shop.
Every surface had different users, different emotional states, different environmental constraints, and different definitions of what "easy" looked like. Designing across all of them simultaneously — with a single coherent system underneath — was the central design challenge.
Understanding the high level structure of all websites and concepts.
THE DISCOVERY
Six weeks of immersive research — not desk research, but being physically present in the environments we were designing for. Site visits to venues. Ethnographic observation of how guests actually behaved at the moment of photo collection — rushed, excited, sometimes disappointed, often unsure what they'd captured. Interviews with park staff who had the deepest contextual knowledge of how the system worked and where it broke down daily.
The insight that reframed everything: guests didn't think about their photos at the point of purchase. They thought about them later — reliving the day, sharing with family, deciding what to keep. The product was being sold at exactly the wrong emotional moment. The opportunity was to make the photos accessible anywhere, at any time, long after the visit ended.
This insight drove the core technology recommendation: RFID bands and facial recognition — where guests provided consent — as the association mechanism, replacing the counter-based collection model entirely. Instead of queuing to find your photos, your photos found you.
THE STRATEGY
The phased strategy separated what needed to be true for MVP from what represented the long-term vision — a distinction that was critical for a client operating across 143 venues with significant operational complexity.
MVP focused on proving the frictionless access model at a small number of venues — replacing counter collection with digital access via app and responsive website, while maintaining the existing staff tools as a bridge. The vision extended to full omnichannel integration: kiosks, push notifications timed to post-visit emotional peaks, multi-market localisation, and the full self-service staff app replacing the desktop tool entirely.
The strategy was presented jointly to DEI's CEO and Board. It was approved as defined.
Current UX across devices
Proposed UX across the experience
Future Vision UX
IMPACT
Transitioned DEI’s internal tooling from a desktop application to a mobile app to ensure the staff on ground is able to perform operations all day with reduced wastage and increased productivity. Additionally, by creating new customer facing interfaces we unlocked additional revenue for DEI, while addressing the customers’ biggest pain points of accessing and purchasing their most memorable experiences from anywhere.
A note on outcomes:
My role on this project ended at strategy approval and handoff. The execution impact belongs to the team that built it. What I can speak to is the rigour of the discovery, the quality of the strategic direction, and the fact that it was approved at board level and executed as defined — which, for a strategy of this complexity, is its own form of validation.