# LEGO

> A short in-park research engagement at LEGOLAND Billund, mapping how families take breaks between the rides (coffee, lunch, a place to sit), where that worked, and where the park could improve.

**Question:** Where does a family's day lose its momentum?  
**Tags:** Research, Experience  
**Focus:** Service Designer  
**Case study:** https://www.sebastian-nause-blueml.com/lego.html

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## Cover

**LEGO**

# Where does a family's day lose its momentum?

In-park research at LEGOLAND Billund - mapping the moments between the rides.

*Cover image: Miniature LEGO houses of Nyhavn in Miniland at LEGOLAND Billund.*

## At a glance

- **Client:** LEGOLAND Billund, Denmark
- **My role:** Service Designer - in-park user research and journey mapping
- **The people:** Families visiting the park
- **Focus:** The break experience - coffee, lunch, a place to sit - not the attractions

## The brief

### Everyone designs the rides. Nobody designs the breaks.

LEGOLAND wanted to understand the parts of a visit that aren't attractions - where families need food, a place to sit, shelter from the rain or just a pause, and where the park could do better.

## The reframe

### A family's day is a rhythm, not a ride sequence.

Excitement needs recovery. When the recovery fails - hungry kids, nowhere to sit, a queue for lunch - the whole day sags, no matter how good the rides are.

*Image caption: The rides get the attention. The research looked at everything in between.*

## The research

### In the park, with families - not in a lab.

Dozens of hours in the park, interviewing families mid-visit and watching how they behaved: where they stopped, where they wanted to stop and couldn't, and when a break was chosen versus forced.

*Image caption: Research where the experience happens: in the park, mid-visit.*

## The mapping

### The day, mapped as families actually live it.

Journeys mapped around the breaks rather than the rides - where the park supported a pause, and where it forced one.

*Image caption: Mapping the day brick by brick - needs, timing, and places to pause.*

## What came out

### Where the day sagged - and where it could be saved.

One thread ran through it: a family isn't one customer. Kids and grown-ups want different things from a break, and the sharpest opportunities were the moments where one of them - often the kids - had a need the park didn't meet.

I delivered the research report and the opportunity areas. What LEGOLAND did with them, I honestly can't say.

## Looking back

### What stays with me

The best parts of an experience are often the quiet ones nobody owns: the bench, the coffee, the pause between the big moments. And a family is never one user. Getting those in-between moments right means serving the four-year-old and the grandparent at once.