How to Use Visitor Experience to Your Advantage

Understanding how to use visitor experience to your advantage is key in successful museum function. Museums are often too concerned with the idea of education as their primary objective. Instead, they should be concerned with the idea of inspired learning. This is the idea that interpretive programs can inspire the individual’s understanding of the material, rather than impress a specific idea upon them.

There are three types of visitor experiences that happen in the museum setting that can be evaluated and used to maximize the benefits of the interpretive program in question.

The first is a kind of reverential experience that many people feel when visiting a museum. There is a sense that this is a space and experience separate from the everyday routine and museums can harness this energy to use to their advantage.

The second is a social experience.  Many times, people visit museums in groups, and this group experience enhances and in many ways defines their museum experience as a whole. Even those who visit museums by themselves may take advantage of the museum’s social experience by engaging with other visitors.

The third type of visitor experience we can define here is a cognitive one. Museums are educational, but it is important to remember that they are personally educational. That means that each individual takes the information they are presented with, and uses his or her own experiences to define and understand that material.

Each educational experience is unique, and each visitors takes away something different. Click To Tweet

Now that we have defined different kinds of visitor experiences we must understand how we might use these experiences to improve overall visitor engagement and program success. There are many ways to encourage visitor engagement. Having guides or docents who are not only knowledgeable about the material, but also understand how to connect and effectively communicate with people drastically changes the interaction between visitors and guides. There have also been studies done that prove that people are more likely to learn from active discussion than from lectures. In discussion settings, visitors are able to engage with other guests as well as guides and process the material to express their own thoughts and questions.

Though some studies have shown that the use of technology in museum settings does not necessarily improve the cognitive experience of the visitor, it does improve the overall visitor experience by creating a special experience, improving the reverential experience of the visitor.

Regardless of the exact technique, any program that encourages interaction between visitors, supports individual understanding of the material, and produces a certain “wow factor,” is certain to improve overall visitor experience, indicating the success of the program. Try implementing this mindset while planning an exhibition program and see where it takes you.