Improving Visitor Experience with Well-Designed Access Control Booths

Bold, beautiful buildings for cultural institutions like museums are usually designed to make an impression and to house some of the world’s most beautiful treasures, be it music, art, or historic artifacts. Buildings like the Guggenheim in Bilbao, the Sydney Opera House, or the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth are all inspiring structures for their unmistakable architecture and presence. That is why it’s incredibly important to make sure a visitor’s first physical experience with the facility is a positive one with a beautifully designed and constructed access control booth.

Making a Good First Impression with an Access Control Booth

As people are driving up to an iconic building, they are typically enamored with what is in front of them. They have feelings of awe and wonder at what is inside. The excitement builds as they draw closer to the experience that lies beyond those front doors.

A poorly designed access control booth can squash the emotions that architects spent months or years constructing their building to evoke from visitors. A jarring, out of place, or cheap looking access booth draws attention away from the main show, but a well-designed booth is a part of the overall design and architecture of the facility.

When the design of the booth flows with the design of the rest of the building, visitors can have a seamless experience at every point of interaction. These little things may not seem overly important, but it’s the details, like an access control booth, that truly solidify the overall aesthetic of a design.

And don’t forget the purpose of a booth at the entrance of a campus: security. Having a booth adds significantly to the feelings of safety and security visitors feel because there is a literal barrier between them and the outside world. This subtle detail can drastically improve someone’s experience.

What is Access Control?

Are access control booths even necessary? Yes! Access control allows you to selectively restrict access to your location.

The practice is common for office buildings, museums, government buildings, schools, and sports complexes among many others. These types of facilities have an extra emphasis on security because of the volume of people coming through, the sensitivity of documents or data stored inside, or because of the importance of the people inside.

Controlling who goes in and out of such facilities is the first and arguably most important line of defense. Safety is paramount, and access control is what keeps things in order. A physical barrier is key to access control because it deters or prevents malignant parties from entering the property.

Having the barrier and control afforded by an access control booth gives those behind the barrier an important sense of security and safety. As discussed previously, emotional safety can greatly add to the positive experience for visitors. It also can allow employees and other people who are working in the building to do so without worry of outside interference.

Other Benefits

In addition to the sense of security for those that are on-premise at the location and having a physical barrier to deter or prevent entry, an access control booth has a number of other security benefits:

Verification and logging — the guard or attendant in the booth is able to provide real-time verification of the identities of visitors. Also, they can log traffic activity or any incidents.

Eyes and ears — the booth attendant is privy to every person going in and out of the facility. They are able to notice anything out of the ordinary. They are also able to help people with simple instructions on where to do, improving a visitor’s experience.

Eliminates “Piggybacking” — Piggybacking is the act of an unauthorized car or person going through an automated entry point directly after an authorized party before the automation closes the gate. Having a person manually control access can eliminate the occurrence.

Psychological Barrier — Simply having a guard in a booth gives someone with bad intentions another obstacle and is an effective deterrent.

Important Things to Consider in an Access Control Booth

As previously mentioned, an access control booth’s design should reflect the architecture of the rest of the campus. This will keep the booth from sticking out like a sore thumb.

But there are other factors concerning safety, defense, usability, and durability that need to be considered when configuring a security booth. Here are a few major factors to think about:

Safety — An access control booth is meant to be a barrier and deterrent, but it must also keep the occupants of the booth safe from an assortment of attacks. Windows, doors, and walls need to be bulletproof, the booth itself needs to be blast resistant, and the doors and windows need to have strong locks.

Defense — In any defense situation, the most important key to keeping people safe and mitigating damage is communication. Because the booth attendant is typically the first line of defense, they need to be equipped with communication tools to inform others of anything that may be happening on the ground.

Usability — A booth needs to be easy and comfortable for the guard to work in. That means installed shelving, electrical wiring, HVAC, and doors and windows that work even after constant use.

Durability — An access control booth needs to stand up to the elements and use for years and still look and work perfectly. That means paint, materials, and hardware that is built to last.

At B.I.G. Enterprises, our booths can be customized to fit any architectural design. They can feature bullet and blast-resistant materials and construction to keep occupants safe. Booths are designed and built with interior shelves and flooring, lighting, and wiring for electricity and HVAC. Our intensive painting process looks great after years in the elements and our door and window hardware is built to last.