Fonterra
Turning the cream of scientific thinking into a fresh visitor experience.
Background
Palmerston North may not be the first town that springs to mind for world-leading scientific research – but that’s exactly what The Fonterra Research & Development Centre (FRDC) does day after day. In fact, it employs many of the world’s top experts to unlock the goodness of dairy.
Home to more than 300 researchers, engineers and scientists from around 46 countries, the team boasts over 130 PhDs and more than 3,500 combined years of experience in dairy science, research and development. And that alone makes it one of the largest dairy research facilities in the world.
So when D&Co were asked to re-engineer the visitor experience to highlight the great work they were doing, we knew we had to come up with something excitingly fresh.
The challenge
So, how do you turn something so technically detailed and complex into an engaging experience for all kinds of visitors – from school kids to scientific peers? We had lots of stories. Heaps of insights. And some wall space. But the learning journey felt disjointed and incomplete – and to be honest, not very exciting. The fact was, the visitor experience didn't reflect the depth and breadth of the amazing work the FRDC was doing. Time for a D&Co deep dive into the visitor journey…
“We went in with a sense of curiosity – and we left with some of the most incredible stories we’ve ever heard. It was a genuine pleasure to work alongside such an incredible group of researchers, engineers and scientists. It’s these people we wanted to honour, and share their extraordinary discoveries with the world.”
— Russell Douglas, Founder & Principal Strategist, D&Co
Where brands meet people
Our solution
We had recently completed work on Fonterra's Te Rapa visitor experience, so we knew a fair bit about designing visitor experiences at scale. But the more we dug into the history of the FRDC, the more fascinating it became. Multiple onsite reviews, chats, explorative workshops, and extensive desktop research, meant we could tell new stories, while highlighting some of the extraordinary minds who created genuine global benchmarks in dairy science.
Together, we decided to redesign the entire experience from scratch. Our team put forward a new, more engaging, visitor experience that told the FRDC story in a way that was exciting, immersive and educational – ensuring that any visitors who came for a tour left impressed with a bit of the WOW! Factor.
Making sure that the master brand aligned, we created a cohesive design framework to ensure each zone of the experience aligned to our vision and had a seamless flow from one learning ‘zone’ to another.
From innovation to inspiration
Each key element of FRDC's story is now told in a consistent, logical way, from innovation and consumer science, to microscopy and food safety. We also used physical artefacts to showcase their people and achievements, leveraging the incredible knowledge and expertise of their researchers, engineers and scientists, and using activations to help tell their impressive innovation story.
The final result is one that the FRDC team – and the people of New Zealand – can be very proud of.
Deliverables:
Desktop experience research, brand experience strategy, site plan, process design, wayfinding, brand experience design, activations, and installation.
Related Work
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