If you’ve ever stood in line for a roller coaster, wondering why the car tilts just before the first drop, or lingered in a family-friendly area of an amusement park instead of the thrill zone, you’ve stumbled on a question I’ve spent 12 years answering as an amusement facilities supplier: how do we design spaces and rides that don’t just spin or drop people, but feel tailored to exactly what different groups want? I’m not a ride engineer who only talks in G-forces or a theme park designer who only chases Instagram-worthy photos—though I’ve learned to speak both languages, because the best facilities start with asking who the user is, not just what’s cool. Amusement Facilities
Let me start with the group that’s often overlooked when people talk about amusement parks: kids under 10, especially those between 3 and 8 years old. When we designed our first small-scale spinning tea cup ride for a community park in Ohio a few years back, our initial draft was identical to the classic Disneyland version—bright pastel cups, a central spindle, the ability to spin the center wheel as fast as you want. But when we tested it with a group of 5-year-olds at a local daycare, something broke. A little girl with autism, who rarely spoke during group activities, was standing off to the side, and her caregiver told us the spinning was too unpredictable. One kid would spin like a tornado, the next would stop halfway, and she couldn’t handle the lack of control. We went back to the drawing board. The changes were small, but rooted in child development research we consulted with a local pediatric occupational therapist: we added a lockable spin speed setting, so it moves at a gentle, consistent pace—no free-spinning chaos. We also widened the cup doors from 18 inches to 24 inches, because even kids who can walk sometimes get stuck trying to climb in, and added non-slip floor mats that are raised just 2 inches off the ground (no big steps to trip over). That ride now gets booked for birthday parties every weekend, and the park told us it’s one of the only rides where kids with sensory processing disorder ask to ride twice. The key here was user research that didn’t just ask “do you like this?” but watched how different kids interacted with it. Toddlers don’t care about thrills—they care about feeling safe, and able to control their own small part of the fun.
Next up: the teen and young adult crowd, the ones who post ride videos on TikTok and brag about how many G’s they can pull. For this group, it’s not just about speed—it’s about perceived control and story. Last year, we worked on a dark roller coaster for a regional park in Texas, set in a fictional old west ghost town. Our first concept was a standard steel coaster with sharp turns and a 90-foot drop, but when we tested it with 16-year-olds, they said it felt generic, like every other coaster. So we leaned into immersive design, not just the mechanics. We worked with a storyboard artist to add interactive elements: mid-ride, a hologram outlaw shoots a gun at the car, and the car’s seat vibrates in sync with the blast, so it feels like you’re dodging. We also added a “choose your own path” feature—via small, unobtrusive touchscreens on the car that are only activated at designated points, riders can pick between chasing the outlaw or escaping a cave, which changes the final drop. The data from the park after three months? Ride time went up 15%, and social media posts tagged to the ride were 40% more likely to use hashtags like “best ride ever” than any other coaster on their property. For teens and young adults, thrill is tied to agency—they don’t want to be along for a ride; they want to shape it. We also learned that comfort matters here, too: we used padded harnesses that don’t dig into shoulders on 10-minute rides, because no one wants to post a photo of their ride with red marks on their chest.
Then there’s the group that’s actually the biggest spenders in amusement parks: families with kids between 25 and 40 years old. I’ve seen parks make the mistake of splitting rides into “kid zones” and “adult zones,” which leaves parents stuck watching their kids from a bench while everyone else has fun. That’s a gap we’ve filled with our family swing rides, which we revised last year. The original swing ride is great for adults who want to swing high, but terrible for little kids who are scared of height and parents who want to ride with their toddler. Our new model has two levels of swings: lower swings for kids 3 and up that only rise 5 feet off the ground, with an extra safety bar that locks across the front, and upper swings for older kids and adults that go up to 30 feet. We also added a “rider sync” feature—groups of up to 4 can sync their swings so they rise and fall together, which is perfect for parents and kids who want to take a family photo mid-swing. We tested this at a park in Florida, and their family attendance went up 22% that summer, because parents didn’t have to split their group. The science here is about “communal experience”: when you design a ride that accommodates multiple generations, it doesn’t just get more people on it—it gets people to stay longer and spend more on snacks and gifts. We also found that adding accessible seating for wheelchairs that integrates seamlessly into the ride (no separate, boring platform) was a game-changer for family groups with a disabled member. One park told us that a family with a son in a wheelchair rode the swing together three times in a day, which they’d never done with their old swing ride.
Wait, but what about the quiet users? The ones who don’t want to scream or run around—seniors, or people who have mobility issues, or even just people who visit parks to relax. A lot of amusement facilities feel like they’re built for people with unlimited energy, which is why our gentle rides line has been our fastest-growing segment lately. Last year, we designed a custom boat ride for a senior center’s “park day” space—slow, gliding, through a small pond lined with native wildflowers, with benches inside the boats that have armrests for support, and wide entrances that make it easy for walkers and wheelchairs to board without assistance. We also added a feature that lets the captain adjust the speed of the ride via a remote, so people who get tired can move slower, and people who want a little more movement can glide a bit faster. What surprised us most was that it wasn’t just seniors using it—young adults who wanted a break from the thrill rides would linger on this one, too. For that group, amusement facilities don’t need to be loud or fast; they need to be predictable, low-stakes, and give a sense of calm. That’s why we test every gentle ride with a panel of people with mobility impairments, asking questions like “do you feel secure boarding?” or “is there enough space to shift your position if you need to?”—small details that make a huge difference.
Of course, none of this works without tying the design back to safety, which is the foundation of every ride we build. I’ve seen a ride shut down mid-season because of a small engineering flaw, which is why we work with third-party safety inspectors at every stage of design, not just before installation. For example, when we added the sync feature to our family swings, we had to run over 1,000 tests to make sure the motor that syncs the swings didn’t put extra strain on the ride’s frame, which could lead to wear and tear over time. We also use materials that are resistant to weather, sun, and even rough handling—our ride surfaces are made of a non-slip, UV-resistant plastic that doesn’t get hot in the summer, which is a big deal for people with bare feet or kids who like to climb on ride structures.
Here’s the thing: as an amusement facilities supplier, I don’t see myself as someone who just sells rides. I see myself as someone who helps parks create spaces where every person feels included. A few months ago, I got an email from a park manager in Michigan who said that after installing our modified spinning tea cups, a group of parents with kids who have sensory needs told her that was the first time their kids had ever asked to go to an amusement park. That’s the kind of impact that matters more than how fast a ride goes or how many people post about it.
If you’re a park operator, a community event planner, or anyone looking to build or update amusement facilities that work for your specific audience—whether that’s thrill-seeking teens, young families, seniors, or kids with special needs—I’d love to talk through your needs. Every space is different, and so are the people using it, so one size never fits all. We can work together to design something that’s not just fun, but safe, inclusive, and tailored exactly to who your guests are.
Slide References
- American Academy of Pediatrics. (2020). Guidelines for amusement ride safety and child development considerations. Pediatrics, 146(3), e2020015689.
- Occupational Therapy Practice Framework: Domain and Process (4th ed.). American Occupational Therapy Association. (2020).
- Ride Safety Standards for Amusement Rides and Devices. ASTM International. (2022).
- Chen, Y., & Ross, G. (2021). User experience design for inclusive amusement attractions: A systematic review. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, 12(3), 897-915.
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