Pratt Visitor Services
Reimagining Pratt’s visitor experience from fragmented touchpoints into a clear, coordinated service that supports both visitors and staff.
Objective
Design a more cohesive and supportive visitor experience by identifying breakdowns across touchpoints and introducing service-level interventions that improve clarity, reduce staff burden, and help visitors navigate the campus independently.
Role
Service & Experience Designer
Client
Pratt Visitor Services
Team
Gloria Y, Atharva N, Sakshi R
Duration
10 weeks, Oct - Dec 2025
Deliverables
Artifacts
Service Blueprint Ecosystem Loops Co-Design Workshop Ambassador Training Materials Updated Visitor Welcome Packet
Responsibilities
Led end-to-end service research, including service safari, stakeholder interviews, and survey analysis
Mapped the current-state ecosystem and service blueprint to identify gaps across frontstage and backstage operations
Synthesized insights into key pain points and opportunity areas across visitor, and ambassador experiences
Planned and facilitated co-design workshops with student ambassadors and staff to co-create solutions
Designed and delivered two service interventions to improve onboarding, consistency, and visitor experience
Aligned recommendations with operational constraints and organizational goals
Presented findings and strategic recommendations to stakeholders
Context
Designing a Consistent Visitor Experience Across Touchpoints
Pratt Institute’s Visitor Services plays a critical role in shaping first impressions of the campus, supporting prospective students, families, and guests as they navigate an unfamiliar environment. As a private campus with controlled access points and distributed services, visitors often rely heavily on front desk staff and student ambassadors to understand where to go and what to do.
However, the experience was fragmented across physical materials, verbal instructions, and inconsistent service touchpoints. Visitors frequently felt uncertain about directions, next steps, and available resources, while staff spent significant time answering repetitive questions and managing confusion.
This project focused on identifying breakdowns across the visitor journey and redesigning key moments of interaction. Through service design methods, we introduced two core interventions:
A structured ambassador training system to standardize how information is delivered
A redesigned visitor welcome packet to improve clarity and self-navigation
Together, these interventions reduced visitor confusion, improved consistency across touchpoints, and enabled a more scalable and supportive service experience.
Service Safari
Understanding the Current Service Experience
Before proposing improvements, we conducted a service safari to experience the campus tour firsthand and mapped the visitor journey from the user’s perspective. This helped us identify the key touchpoints, decisions, and moments of friction that shape prospective students’ first impression of Pratt, from discovery and registration to tour preparation.
Phase 1: Discover & Register
Visitors can find tour information, but the process lacks clear expectations about what the visit will include and how to prepare.
Phase 2: Pre-Arrival
Visitors arrive feeling uncertain and anxious before they step on campus due to unclear logistical guidance.
Phase 3: Arrival & Check-in
The first in-person touchpoint feels procedural and intimidating, missing an opportunity to create a warm welcome.
Phase 4: Experience Tour
Tour quality varies depending on the student ambassador, leading to inconsistent storytelling and uneven visitor experiences.
Phase 5: Post-Visit
Generic follow-ups and limited next steps fail to reinforce confidence or support decision-making after the tour.
Ecosystem Loop
Key characters in the visitor experience
The visitor experience at Pratt is shaped by multiple actors—visitors, student ambassadors, admissions leadership, counselors, communications teams, and institutional systems—working together across different touchpoints.
Each actor plays a distinct role, and the value exchanged between them creates feedback loops that keep the service running, adapting, and improving over time.
Mapping these ecosystem loops helped us understand how responsibilities, expectations, and emotional labor are shared, and why certain gaps persist across the visitor journey.
Feedback Survey Data Analysis
What the feedback survey revealed?
How post-tour survey data confirmed and quantified the observed pain points? We analyzed 718 tour feedback survey responses and built a dashboard to visualize the key insights.
Information gaps
108 information requests surfaced from 220 responses. These reveal the areas where visitors consistently seek more clarity and directly informed which components we prioritized in the welcome packet and ambassador training.
High Priority
Academic Programs & Curriculum (19.9%)
Financial Aid & Scholarships (19.3%)
Medium Priority
Housing & Residential Life (9.9%)
Admissions & Portfolio (6.2%)
Low Priority
Career & Job Outcomes (5%)
Study Abroad Programs (2.5%)
Campus Life & Social (1.9%)
Co-Design Workshop
Co-designing with the people who deliver the services
Why we chose co-design?
Co-design brings student ambassadors, the people who deliver the service every day, directly into the improvement process. Their involvement surfaces needs, constraints, and emotional moments that surveys or service blueprints alone cannot fully capture.
Through workshops, we uncovered real operational challenges and day-to-day realities, allowing improvement ideas to be grounded in how the service is actually delivered. By involving ambassadors early and closely, our solutions became more realistic, actionable, and aligned with the lived visitor experience.
What we want to learn from the workshops?
Co-design brings student ambassadors, the people who deliver the service every day, directly into the improvement process. Their involvement surfaces needs, constraints, and emotional moments that surveys or service blueprints alone cannot fully capture.
Through workshops, we uncovered real operational challenges and day-to-day realities, allowing improvement ideas to be grounded in how the service is actually delivered. By involving ambassadors early and closely, our solutions became more realistic, actionable, and aligned with the lived visitor experience.
01
Understand the Real Tour Experience from Student Ambassadors
02
Surface the Gaps and Opportunities in Current Experience
03
Co-Create Simple and Feasible Improvements
What we did?
We hosted two 60-minute in-person co-design workshops with 16 participants, including ambassadors across all tiers and Shamôr. Each session combined reflection, mapping, and creativity to uncover improvement opportunities.
Activities Inlcudes:
A warm-up defining “What Welcome Means”
Visitor journey mapping through the eyes of ambassadors
Role-play exercises to simulate real tour moments
Identifying emotional highs/lows, gaps, and breakdowns
Sketching solutions for a better visitor experience
Key Insights
What We Learned from Research?
The experience wasn’t failing because of individuals. It was failing because there was no system supporting them
No shared structure
Ambassadors delivered tours differently with no consistent framework
Information fragmentation
Visitors received partial or inconsistent information across touchpoints
Lack of guidance tools
Ambassadors had no resources to support delivery
Interventions
From insights to action
With these insights grounded in real operational constraints, we proposed two interventions to better support both visitors and ambassadors.
Intervention 1: Ambassador training materials
A continuous, behavior-based training system designed to improve consistency, emotional connection, and clarity across tours.
Intervention 2: Updated visitor welcome package
A redesigned pre- and post-visit communication toolkit that clarifies logistics, reinforces key information, and supports decision-making beyond the tour.
Together, these interventions:
Align ambassadors around shared values and updated information
Reduce cognitive load during tours
Improve visitor clarity before arrival
Reinforce confidence after the visit
Create a lightweight feedback loop for ongoing improvement
Rather than a one-time fix, this approach builds a stronger service foundation that can evolve with operational needs.
INTERVENTION 1
Intervention 1 – Ambassador training materials
Student ambassadors play a critical role in shaping visitors’ first impressions of Pratt. However, our research revealed that tour quality varied widely depending on individual experience, confidence, and preparation. To address this inconsistency and reduce ambassador anxiety, we redesigned the training system to provide clearer, more consistent support before, during, and after tours. This approach improves tour consistency across ambassadors, reinforces Pratt’s values through observable behaviors rather than scripts, and shifts training from a one-time onboarding moment to a continuous learning loop that supports ongoing reflection, adjustment, and growth throughout the semester.
A three-phase training model
Rather than relying on a single onboarding session, we designed a continuous training model that supports ambassadors across three key moments: learning the role, delivering tours, and reflecting on performance. This structure helps ambassadors build confidence gradually while reinforcing consistency and care in tour delivery.
01
Learning
Workshop Training
Gives new ambassadors a shared foundation, common language, and confidence.
02
Doing
Real Time Reminders
Mobile & physical cue cards to support consistent storytelling during tours
03
Reviewing
Mid-Point Reflection
Short check-ins to surface emotional challenges, share wins, and adjust.
Phase 1 Learning - Building shared foundations
These tools are used during the Initial training sessions to help new ambassadors observe carefully and set personal goals before they lead tours on their own.
With a shared foundation in place, ambassadors are better prepared when they begin leading tours independently.
Phase 2 Doing - Supporting consistent tours in real time
Even experienced ambassadors can feel pressure when leading tours. To reduce cognitive load and improve consistency, we introduced lightweight tools ambassadors can reference in the moment.
After leading tours independently, ambassadors reflect on what worked, what didn’t, and how to improve future tours.
Phase 3 Reviewing - Reflecting as a team practice
Instead of waiting until issues escalate, we introduced short, structured reflection moments to help ambassadors process challenges and improve together.
INTERVENTION 1
Intervention 2 – Updated visitor welcome packet
The welcome packet is the final artifact visitors take home after their campus tour. However, our research revealed that the existing packet did little to support visitors once they left campus. Information was scattered, key details were difficult to find, and there was no clear guidance on what to do next, leaving many visitors unsure how to move forward in their decision-making process.
What visitors receive today?
The existing packet includes helpful materials, but lacks visual hierarchy, consistency, and clear orientation. Visitors must piece together information on their own, increasing cognitive load after an already information-heavy tour.
Our design goal
Based on survey data and co-design insights, our goal was to transform the welcome packet from a static takeaway into an active support tool, one that helps visitors recall key information, access reliable resources, and understand next steps after the tour.
Improve clarity and scannability
Reduce reliance on memory
Extend support beyond the tour
What we updated?
Now show the updated packet and walk through changes one component at a time.
Component 1: Pratt logo sticker
What it is?
A Pratt brand logo sticker added to the existing black folder as a small but meaningful brand upgrade.
Why it matters?
t reinforces brand identity, creates a sense of belonging, and serves as a positive reminder of the visit after visitors leave campus.
Component 2: Welcome Pratt One-Pager
What it is?
A redesigned overview page that introduces what’s inside the packet, highlights key contacts, and outlines clear next steps after the tour.
Why it matters?
It helps visitors quickly understand the purpose of the packet and reduces confusion once they leave campus, especially after an information-heavy visit.
Component 3a: Redesigned campus map
What it is?
A simplified, color-coded campus map with labeled tour stops, a notes section, and QR codes linking to digital resources.
Why it matters?
Clear wayfinding reduces stress during the visit and helps visitors stay oriented both during and after the tour.
Component 3b: Digital Visitor Welcome Guide
What it is?
A new webpage added under the Admissions section of Pratt’s website that compiles essential visitor information with clear calls to action linking to official pages.
Why it matters?
It provides an always-available reference visitors can revisit during decision-making, extending support beyond the physical visit.
Component 4: Quick FAQ Guide
What it is?
A reorganized FAQ layout that expands on frequently asked questions, clearly separates undergraduate and graduate information, and improves readability.
Why it matters?
It serves as an easy-to-use reference and addresses common post-tour questions proactively, reducing uncertainty and repeated follow-ups to ambassadors and admissions staff.
Impact
Bringing the Results Back to the Client
We presented our findings and proposed interventions to the a group of audience, including the dean of School of Information, staffs from OEA, staffs from ORSP, and Director of Admissions. The client responded positively, highlighting the practicality and relevance of the solutions, especially the updated FAQ content.
"This is great work. We especially love the FAQ update. We do see a lot of questions about portfolio reviews and application requirements. These updates could really help us improve the service."
— Tricia Hughes, Direction of Admissions
This feedback reinforced that our recommendations addressed real, recurring challenges faced by both visitors and staff, and demonstrated the value of grounding service improvements in research and stakeholder collaboration.
