Wonderfully inventive idea from an individual in Canada who wanted to solve the age-old problem of alleviating boredom for travellers waiting to enter tourist attractions.
iQueue is an idea from Marc-Oliver Gern, a freelance digital marketing and user experience strategist who is working for the Yukon Territory in Canada.
The idea is pretty simple:
Attractions and other points of interest in the region have markers placed along existing queues with an estimated time remaining until the visitor gets to the front of the line.
On the signs, visitors are prompted to download the iQueue app to their mobile device.
The app works out where the visitor is waiting and then asks if they would like someone to wait in the queue for them.
If the user wants to take up the service the system tells them how long until their stand-in will arrive.
The iQueuer will also purchase the tickets for the visitor before letting them know that they can come back and enjoy the attraction!
Sounds simple.
The app doesn't stop there. It will also let the visitor what other attractions or things to see are available in the immediate area, based on the length of the existing queue.
An interesting element of the test in its second phase was to enlist unemployed members of the local community to act as the iQuerers.
At this point visitors were asked to pay for the service. Gern says 89 local people signed up and on average received 38 queue requests from visitors. Most of the participants made around Euro 400 after six weeks and 76 hours worth of queuing.
NB: Pics from Marc-Oliver Gern's blog.