Space Needle — Vlad Holoborodko

Designing the complete digital ecosystem of one of Seattle’s most iconic landmarks.

Travel & Entertainment
2024–2025
Senior Product Designer
Web / Kiosk / Tablet

01The invite
02What followed
03The outcome

Space Needle brought me in to design tablet interfaces for their in-tower camera experiences: Oculus Selfie, Halo Selfie, SkyHigh, and more. What started as a focused UI project evolved into a long-term partnership across the entire digital product ecosystem.

The Space Needle had multiple disconnected digital touchpoints, including in-tower tablets, ticketing kiosks, web purchase flows, box office tools, and internal management systems, each built independently without a unified design language or experience logic.

Over the course of the engagement, I redesigned and unified the entire ecosystem: camera experience tablets, ticketing kiosks, web purchase flows, box office interfaces, an internal management platform, and Spacebook, all adapted for partner attractions Chihuly Garden and Glass and Seattle Top Tix.

01The invite

02What followed

03The outcome

Senior Product Designer

I was brought in as Senior Product Designer to design tablet interfaces for Space Needle’s in-tower camera experiences, and ended up staying for over a year as the scope expanded to cover every digital touchpoint the attraction operates, from guest-facing kiosks and web flows to the internal platform that runs day-to-day operations.

Across the engagement I worked on six distinct products serving three very different audiences: tourists experiencing the tower for the first time, on-site staff handling ticketing and sales, and operations managers controlling pricing, inventory, and scheduling across all channels. Each product had its own context, constraints, and success criteria, and all of them had to work together as a single coherent ecosystem.

What I owned

In-Tower Camera Tablet UI
Ticketing Kiosk Redesign
Web Purchase Flow
Box Office Interface
Internal Management Platform
Spacebook (Web & Tablet)
Partner Platform Adaptation

With whom

Product Management
Engineering
Operations Team
Marketing

How I worked

End-to-end product design
Multi-platform thinking
Cross-functional collaboration
Iterative delivery
Partner adaptation
Research-informed decisions

In-Tower Camera Experiences

My first project at Space Needle was designing tablet interfaces for three distinct in-tower camera experiences. Each had its own context, camera setup, and guest flow, but all shared the same constraint: it had to work for anyone, instantly, with no prior experience.

Oculus Selfie: overhead shot looking straight down through the iconic glass oculus stairs
Halo Selfie: 360° camera experience on the outer observation ring
SkyHigh Selfie: photo experience at 520 feet on the open-air deck
Touchscreen tablet UI designed for guests of all ages and tech familiarity
Instant photo preview and delivery to the SpaceBook app
Optimized for high-traffic, fast-paced guest interactions

Ticketing Kiosks

Self-service ticketing for one of Seattle’s busiest attractions, redesigned for speed, clarity, and two very different kiosk formats. The design had to handle everything from a single adult ticket to complex group bookings, without friction.

Full redesign of standard ticketing kiosk UI
New large-format kiosk interface for high-traffic entry points
Streamlined ticket selection, date picking, and checkout flow
Accessibility-first design for diverse guest demographics
Consistent experience across both kiosk form factors
Designed for speed, with average transaction time reduced significantly

Web Purchase Flow

The web purchase flow had to convert visitors into buyers on desktop and mobile, for guests planning ahead and for last-minute purchases. Clear pricing, smooth checkout, and zero unnecessary steps.

End-to-end web ticketing flow for Space Needle
Responsive design across desktop and mobile
Date and time selection with real-time availability
Add-on experiences integrated into the purchase flow
Streamlined checkout with minimal drop-off points
Optimized for both planned visits and impulse purchases

Box Office

The box office interface is used by Space Needle staff every single day for selling tickets, handling modifications, managing groups, and processing payments at the counter. Speed and reliability were non-negotiable.

POS interface designed for on-site staff at the ticket counter
Fast ticket lookup, date and time modification, and cancellation flows
Group booking and multi-ticket management in a few taps
Bundle and promo discovery, so staff can quickly find the best option for each guest
Real-time availability and capacity visibility across all sessions
Integrated payment processing across multiple tender types

Internal Management Platform

The management platform gives Space Needle operations teams full control over every variable that affects the guest experience: pricing, inventory, schedules, discounts, bundles, and real-time sales data across all channels.

Pricing configuration by month, week, day, and individual time slot
Ticket inventory and capacity management per channel
Bundle, package, and discount configuration
Real-time sales tracking across kiosks, web, and box office
Schedule management for experiences, sessions, and time slots
Role-based access for managers and operations staff

Partner Platforms

Every product designed for Space Needle was adapted for two partner attractions: Chihuly Garden and Glass, and Seattle Top Tix. Same underlying logic, same component architecture, completely different brand expressions.

Kiosk UI adapted for Chihuly Garden and Glass
Kiosk UI adapted for Seattle Top Tix
Web purchase flow adapted for both partner platforms
Brand token system enabling full visual differentiation
Shared component architecture across all three brands
Partner onboarding accelerated through reusable foundations

What began as a tablet UI project became a full digital ecosystem redesign, spanning customer-facing experiences, partner platforms, and internal operations across one of America’s most iconic attractions.

Products designed

Camera tablets, kiosks, web flows, box office, management platform, and Spacebook.

Brands covered

Space Needle, Chihuly Garden and Glass, and Seattle Top Tix, all sharing unified design foundations.

Kiosk formats

Standard and large-format ticketing kiosks, both redesigned from the ground up.

Design system

One unified foundation powering all touchpoints across all three brands.

6+Products designed
3Brands covered
2Kiosk formats
1Design system

6+
Products designed
Camera tablets, kiosks, web flows, box office, management platform, and Spacebook.
3
Brands covered
Space Needle, Chihuly Garden and Glass, and Seattle Top Tix, all sharing unified design foundations.
2
Kiosk formats
Standard and large-format ticketing kiosks, both redesigned from the ground up.
1
Design system
One unified foundation powering all touchpoints across all three brands.

Designing for tourists means designing for people who have never used your product before, and may never use it again. Clarity and speed are everything.
When one design system powers three brands, the architecture decisions you make early determine how much freedom, or constraint, every team has later.
The internal tools that staff use every day matter just as much as the customer-facing ones. A well-designed back-office makes the whole guest experience better.