At Your Service Anywhere, Anytime

Whether you are leveraging a spare moment in a busy day or unwinding after work, the windows of time available to use as we please are precious. Today, the options for leisure seem almost limitless, especially within the digital sphere. Simply browse the list of movies available on Netflix or select a mobile gaming app to download. Among the myriad options, what makes us favor certain leisure services over others? How are new digital leisure services impacting physical leisure places?

Our parents and grandparents went out to movie theatres, libraries and retail stores. Although we can still engage with these physical leisure places, variations of them exist conveniently in our hands via movie streaming apps, e-book rentals and online shops. These digital services offer higher personalization, including recommendations based on past behaviors. Now that geographic vicinities no longer define leisure options, we expect instant access.

Along with being on-demand and personalized, people also seek leisure experiences that are easily shareable with social networks. Facebook, WeChat, Instagram and Snap Chat reveal glimpses into friends’ travels, hobbies and personal leisure activities. Essentially, if an experience cannot be shared, it did not happen. Service designers need to consider how users share their experiences with peers and to what extent they are meant to be shared. 

To keep up with digital leisure services, many physical places of leisure add features and technology. At the Golden 1 Centre, a new basketball stadium in California, USA, a mobile app allows users to order food to their seats, find the bathroom with the shortest line and select replays to watch. Similarly, movie theatres have now retrofitted themselves with better sound and more comfortable seating. Unfortunately, these feature-focused add-ons might not be enough to compete with the unbeatable convenience of watching a movie or sports game on-demand at home.

While some places struggle to evolve and augment their spaces with technology, a new type of place-based leisure disrupts the current notions of leisure locations. This type does not limit itself to any specific place; instead, it transforms everyday places into temporary leisure locations. For example, Pokémon Go, the augmented reality game, introduces characters throughout the city, bringing users to countless physical locations. Similarly, Groupmuse, a service for live classical music concerts, creates group concerts in hosts’ homes, and KickOn helps users find parties happening at places throughout the city.

These examples indicate that users still want to engage with places and people face-to-face, but no longer need dedicated facilities for leisure. 

Instead, we should design for the conversion and temporary appropriation of everyday spaces into leisure places. For instance, Airbnb offers a photography guide to help hosts showcase their homes as desirable leisure locations for guests.

As users continue to favor on-demand, personalized and social leisure services, how will we define future leisure places? What does it mean for leisure services to be place-based, yet be at any place? Might leisure spaces be more deliberately designed and integrated with digital services? Will virtual reality and augmented reality lead to an entirely new leisure typology? Rather than focus on the potential threat of digital services to physical venues, as some critics do, the more important and productive conversation is to understand how digital services are changing the role of physical leisure places.

Classical Concerts in Strangers’ Living Rooms

Prestigious symphonies and concert halls often fail to attract young or diverse crowds as many people are turned off by the stuffy vibes. Groupmuse, an alternative approach, offers live classical music in relaxed home settings throughout the city. The service is an online platform that connects budding musicians with hosts who want to hold semi-public concerts in their homes.

The USA-based start-up, founded in Boston in 2012, has expanded to various cities with the mission to revitalize the role of classical music in contemporary society. By bringing musicians and a crowd of about 35 strangers together in a home, the experience is intimate and engaging, rather than intimidating and impersonal. Musicians feel a connection with their audience and attendees can socialize or even bring their own alcoholic beverages.