At SeeVolution, we love heatmaps. Here are a few places that we hope will implement the technology soon.

1. Theme Parks

There are more than 400 amusement parks and traditional attractions in the United States alone. In 2008, amusement parks in the United States entertained 300 million visitors who safely enjoyed more that 1.7 billion “rides.” (iaapa.org)

Lines suck. Especially when you are at a theme park. I know that they have estimated wait times posted, but a visual heatmap of the entire park would give a better idea of where to go to find the shortest lines.

2. Sporting Events

According to the MLB attendance report, over 73 million people enjoyed a game at a ballpark this past year, and that’s just baseball. Millions of people flock to professional and collegiate sports stadiums year ‘round. Nothing is worse than missing some of the action…especially when you have to pee. They already have those little TV’s posted outside around the concession stands If they could somehow show a heatmap of what bathroom lines and concessions lines were long, I would be a happy camper.

3. Golf Courses 

I was recently at the Apple store and discovered this little gadget. Though somewhat creepy, I can still see the practicality for small children and teenagers who recently got their license.

My question is “why can’t golf courses install these devices on their Golf carts so they can better monitor the rate of play on the course?”  If you have ever golfed, you have undoubtedly been a victim of the over zealous pro who tries to schedule too many tee times too close together.  If I had the option to go online and see a heatmap before a round, it could impact my decision of whether or not to schedule a tee time.

4. Movie Theaters

So far in 2011, 1.26 billion movie tickets have been sold (the-numbers.com). Multiplexes have made leaps and bounds when it comes to distributing their tickets online. The only problem is that they don’t tell you how many tickets have already been purchased prior to each screening. Some theaters have seating assignments, but most don’t.

My suggestion to theaters is to make their “tickets purchased” for each movie more accessible to the public. A heatmap would be perfect for this as the same seats in the theatre tend to fill up first over an over again. Heatmaps based on ticket sales for each individual movie could very well dictate which both which movie I see and how far ahead of time I want to get to the theatre.

5. The Mall

Its that time of year again. Malls and shopping centers around the world tend to get packed. If there were some sort of application that told me what stores or sections of the mall were busiest via heatmaps I would definitely try and take a peak at it before going.

There are obvious times when the mall is going to be packed no matter what during the holiday season. But as we inch closer to December 25^th, you may as well throw all the old rules out of the door. Nothing is worse that arriving to a packed mall parking lot on a Tuesday morning. Heatmap me.

The idea behind this post is that heatmaps are cool. Yes, we can settle for the numbers, but there is just something about heatmaps that give me a better grip on how busy something actually is.