Das Rietberg Rätsel

Illustrated park map with Rieti, the purple squirrel, asking players to find the missing animals of Museum Rietberg

The task was how to attract more visitors to Museum Rietberg. After observations and interviews, we focused on the park visitors — asking who exactly they are and how we could bring them into the museum.

Four cards showing museum artefacts — a lacquer box, a Buddha sculpture and a woven fish — beside a free-entry voucher

The folded leaflet opened out: outlines of the missing bird, elephant and fish, with the cover and its QR code beside it

Three phone screens of the web app: welcome, the park map with markers, and the page for «der freche Fisch»

Das Rietberg Rätsel is a game designed to blur the boundaries between Museum Rietberg and its surroundings, inviting families and park visitors to explore the park in a playful and engaging way. Its goal is to generate awareness and emotional involvement for the museum's offerings among the visitors of the park.

A wooden bird token with a green QR card, tucked into ivy between branches

Villa Wesendonck seen across the park lawn, with two dogs playing in the grass

A visitor scans the QR code beside a small elephant token hidden among leaves

All game elements are designed to appeal to families of locals and tourists who are planning a visit to the museum or stumble upon it while visiting the park. Players are tasked with finding tokens hidden in various locations using a combination of a printed map and a web app — while searching, information about the museum's offerings is provided.

Research board «Observation»: a grid of notes on how the museum is perceived

SWOT analysis split into strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats

Journey map of the arrival: steps, needs and pains, touchpoints and a mood curve

«Our Scope»: findings sorted into rings from core importance out to less important

Close-up of the core-importance ring with the notes on strategy and values

Locations map: sites sorted in rings from the museum grounds out to the district

«Crazy Eight» ideation round: sketch notes on four themes, plus a photo from the session

Mindsets matrix placing four visitor types between clueless and experienced, locals and tourists

Workshop photos, a wall of storyboard sketches and a notebook drawing of the installation

Service sequence from word of mouth through finding tokens to the reward at the museum

The focus statement beside a circular diagram of the experience touchpoints

Storytelling slide: Rieti and the artefacts whose animals have escaped into the park

Breakdown of the service across park entrances, hidden locations and the museum

Funnel of the field test: 331 groups, 23% aware, 7% interested, 5% taking action

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The task was how to attract more visitors to Museum Rietberg.

Module

Service Design FS 2023

Collaboration

Armin Aschenbrenner, Lea Bischoff, Elena Walther

Partner

Museum Rietberg

Mentors

Florian Wille, Nicole Foelsterl

Description

After observations and interviews, we focused on the park visitors and asked ourselves who exactly they are and how we can bring them into the museum. We worked iteratively with various design methods according to the Double Diamond process across the Discover, Define, Develop and Deliver stages — systematically, analytically, holistically and with a lot of joy and empathy. After five weeks, the concept and a prototype of the Rietbergrätsel were created.

All game elements are designed to appeal to families of locals and tourists who are planning a visit to the museum or stumble upon it while visiting the park. Players are tasked with finding tokens hidden in various locations using a combination of a printed map and a web app. While searching, information about the museum's offerings is provided.