Te Papa Museum Lockers

Te Papa is New Zealand’s National Museum and is a special place for both kiwis and international visitors to visit whenever they are in Wellington. Elocker approached Te Papa to discuss how lockers could enhance the visitor experience, increase security, add a revenue stream for this Autonomous Crown Entity and free up frontline teams to interact with visitors more.

There was an existing Cloak & Bag system, but it was manual, complicated and although it had served Te Papa well since it’s opening, the team at Te Papa knew it needed upgrading. The challenge for Elocker was installing lockers into a long, reasonably thin area so that vistors could easily flow in and out of the area, plus readily find their locker.

Te Papa also requested we add Māori te reo as one of the languages along with the other 14 dialects we offered.

Working closely with the Visitor Services team at Te Papa, plus the Experience Design Department, we developed clear plans for maximising the space. Given there were odd wall shapes (for example one side had a 50mm out crop, but the opposite side was 320mm), we manufactured some of the lockers to have different depths so the front would always be aligned. We also realised that the long shape and 200 plus lockers would require two terminals. Integrating all this into Te Papa’s signage and wayfinding plans was also critical.

Delivery of the lockers was at 6am and we had moved all of them inside and cleared the truck well before morning traffic and commuters were using the thoroughfare.

Using both the visual and audio prompts, Te Papa translated the locker instructions into te reo. Elocker then used our development team to ensure this official New Zealand language was added to our system.

Elocker has transfomed the orginal cloak and baggage area into a modern looking, easily accessed and self-managing locker space. The lockers have been quickly utilised by visitors and are exceeding revenue expectations.