Carmen.Creation


Milegate


Year          2026 Type         Digital wayfinding system Role          Service Designer, User ResearcherFormat    Collaborative  (Team of 3)

Milegate is a community-based, on-arrival wayfinding platform designed to redistribute tourist flow across Margate, UK; connecting curious visitors to the independent creative businesses beyond the seafront that most tourists overlook. Through NFC stickers placed at key points across the town, tourists tap into a curated, real-time local discovery guide at the exact moment curiosity strikes. Local businesses update their availability, tell their stories and stay visible year-round through a shared collective channel. Together, this dual-sided service intervention create a self-sustaining information ecosystem that supports confident discovery and showcases independent business performance, contributing to a more sustainable tourism model and the growth of Margate's cultural economy.


Project Showcase




        Visitor-faced online nagvigation map


        Shop owner management app




Key values of Milegate for different stakeholders
Project Overview


  Challenge


  • Uneven tourist distribution overlooks local independent creative businesses.
  • Visitors concentrated at the seafront and rarely move inland.
  • Known only for its coast, the town's inland creative scene goes unexplored

  Method


  • Desk research — macro context
  • Field observation — problem definition
  • Interviews — stakeholder needs
  • Prototype testing — validation & iteration

    Solution


    An on-arrival, community-driven wayfinding system.
  • Visitors: on-street NFC/QR stickers linking to a curated map with live open/closed status and filters.
  • Businesses: a management app for one-tap status updates, a custom page, and a shared community platform.

  Value


  • For visitor:  A reliable, curated guide supporting confident discovery
  • For local businesses:  An easy-managed tool showcases business performance
  • For local council:  A channel connects tourists to Margate’s independent creative business


Project Details


Challenges



Visitors have the curiosity to explore Margate beyond its beach, while the local independent creative businesses long for more tourist footfall, but have no effective way to reach each other.


Margate located at the Thanet Areas, Southeast England, that welcomes over 4 million visitors a year, but experienced serious uneven tourist distribution. As the observation heat map shown, visitors generally concentrated concentrated at the main beach and the sea front areas without moving into the inland areas. These “cold” areas, especially Northern Down Road, Old Town, and High Street, are exactly where the indepedent creative businesses located and overlooked.

According to Thanet’s 2025 Visitor Survey, 80% of visitors come for coastal experiences, while only 12% visit for cultural tourism. Since Turner Contemporary opened in 2011, Margate’s creative businesses have grown by 32%, with creative and cultural development also highlighted as a priority in local development plans. However, cultural tourism remains a relatively small part of the visitor economy with slow growth, suggesting an opportunity to better connect visitors with Margate’s growing creative and cultural scene.




Research
Why creative businesses been
overlooked in Margate?


Geographically, visitors arriving from the train station tend to follow a direct route towards the seafront, with no opportunity to pass by the creative shops along the way.

There is also a blind spot between the Old Town and Northdown Road, where there are no road signs to guide visitors further. As a result, Northdown Road remains largely unexplored by visitors.



Key insights - user research


Beside geographical factors, the behaviour and attitude of both visitors and the overlooked creative shops decoded the appreance of the challenges.
Through both behavioural observation and user interviews, we identified 4 major gaps that hinder visitors from finding the independent creative shops in Margate. Including lack of effective on-arrival channel, no on-street trigger, scattered and inaccurate information, failure in sustaining collective efforts.





User persona


Who are we targeted at and designed for?

1. Curious Visitor. Tourists who arrive in Margate with limited prior research but openness to discovering more than the seafront, particularly those drawn to the town characteristics (“the Margate things”). They want reliable, inspiring local information that gives them the confidence to explore beyond what they already know. The core pain point is the absence of a timely, trustworthy and curated local guide that meets them at the moment of curiosity.
2. Independent shop owner.  Local independent businesses who want to attract curious visitors and showcase what makes them worth visiting, but find themselves overlooked by tourists who never move beyond the seafront. They are looking for a collective, low-effort way to reach nearby visitors, but currently lack any effective channel to gain the visibility their businesses deserve.


Design Opportunity

 How Might We turn Margate's overlooked independent shops into easy-to-find, trustworthy destinations that tourists feel confident exploring beyond the seafront?

If we provide accurate, reliable local information at the moment tourists are ready to explore,

Then tourists discover independent businesses beyond the seafront and gain a richer, more creative Margate experience.

So tourist footfall begins to redistribute across Margate, strengthening independent businesses and contributing to the growth of a more sustainable cultural economy.



Solution

Milegate - a digital and physical-based local discovery guide that helps visitors confidently find nearby independent shops in Margate, while helping local businesses gain visibility through trusted profiles, recently confirmed opening information and low-effort updates.








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