Paper presented to the Museums Australia National Conference, Adelaide, September 2012

1. Jenny Parsons, South Australian Museum
Regan Forrest, South Australian Museum
(UQ)

2. Presentation Overview

Project context
Volunteer data collection
What to do with the data?
Data analysis
Applying the findings
Lessons learned

3. Project context

 The Opportunity
 Official Reason
 Unofficial Reason
 Desired Outcomes
 A better visitor experience
 Relationship development
 Institutional learning

4. Australian Aboriginal
Cultures Gallery (AACG)

 10yr old gallery
 What needed to be updated?
 What was missing?
 Or worse, what was broken…..
 Opening up our internal discussions in order to
consider the visitor experience

5. Volunteer-led data
collection

 The idea: The Museum is Watching You, WSJ August 18, 2010
 Consultation with Matt Sikora, Detroit Institute of
Arts' director of evaluation
 Creating the map, evaluator letters, signage &
learning about “stops”
 Dream Team: financial analysts
 No budget, entrepreneurial approach

6. Sample tracking sheets

7. Descriptive Statistics

Sample size n=92, 59 males and 64 females (G Floor)
Mean Dwell Time: 9.1 minutes
13-18
Median Dwell Time: 5.0 minutes 19-39
40-65
Mode Dwell Time: 5.0 minutes 65+
Approx. SRI* = 600 sq.ft. / min
(*SRI= Sweep Rate Index as defined in Serrell, B. (1998) Paying Attention: Visitors and Museum
Exhibitions. Published by the American Association of Museums)

8. AACG Dwell Time
35 
30
25
Number of visitors
20
15
10
5
0
1-3 4-6 7-9 10-12 13-15 16-18 19-21 22-24 25-27 28-30 30+
Minutes spent in gallery

9. Visitor Entry Paths:

64%
20%
18%

10. Median Dwell Visitors
(n=11)


11. Gallery zoning – example
from the literature

Klein, HJ (1993) Tracking Visitor Circulation in Museum Settings. Environment and Behavior 1993 25:
782-800. p. 792

12. Zoning the AACG
1 entry
Direction =
90
2 entries
Direction = n/a
1 entry
Direction =
• Overlay gallery plan to divide 135
into 24 „zones‟
• Count each entry into a zone as
1 entry
well as overall direction where Direction = n/a
applicable
• Code direction numerically
(0, 45, 90, 135, 180, 235, 270, 315) 2 entries
Direction = 90

13. Number Crunching

Rest assured – this looks
a lot nastier than it really
is! 
Sum of
entries for
each zone Compare
Comparison Mode
reveals
with
to „average‟
(Total entries most opposite
for all zones common direction
/24) direction

14. Visually Representing
Visitor Movement


15. What this told us and how
we used it

 Important sections were in „visitation deserts‟
 brought the light levels up
 Clear biases in visitor routes
 moved the new introductory wall
 The first floor was a racetrack
 new colourful display with seating & touchscreens

16. The AACG Renovation

Before After

17. Lessons learned

 Visitor tracking relies on expert knowledge
 It‟s essential in understanding and improving the
experience of our visitors
 It has given us a better gallery
 It needs to reside somewhere in the Museum
 Beta exercise. Activating Corporate Social
Responsibility takes strong collaboration internally
but can build relationships & lead to giving.

18. Questions?
