Rethinking the Museum Visitor Experience

John H. FalkSea Grant Free-Choice Learning Professor

Oregon State University

Key Questions:

• Why do people visit museums? 

• What do visitors do inside the museum and why?

• What meanings do visitors take away from their museum visit? 

• How would this information allow us to improve museum practice?

Most efforts to describe and understand museums and their visitors have begun and ended inside the “four walls” of the museum.

Most efforts to describe and understand museums and their visitors have focused on PERMANENT qualities of either:

MUSEUM – content or style of exhibits

VISITOR – age, race/ethnicity visit frequency, social arrangement

or address

The museum visitor experience is not something tangible and immutable but rather an ephemeral,

constructed relationship that uniquely occurs each time a person visits a museum.

The museum visitor experience extends beyond the museum’s spatial and temporal

boundaries.

BEFORE VISIT AFTER VISIT

Q: What would make these people, visit this museum, on this day?

•A: Each and every visitor comes in •order to fulfill his/her own

•personal (identity-related) needs.

Defining Identity• Both internal and external – how we

perceive ourselves and others perceive us.

• We don’t have just one identity but multiple identities; each situated within the realities of physical and socio-cultural world.

• We have both “I” identities and “i” identities.

• Identity can be made “visible” through descriptions of motivations/needs/actions.

Identity-Related Visit Motivations

People visit museums in order to satisfy some personal and/or social need or desire.

• Identity-related motivations are based upon the ways the public (currently) perceives the attributes and value of a particular museum.

What Happens at the MuseumAs we’ve learned over many years, the museum visit is shaped by the visitor’s Personal, Socio-Cultural and Physical Contexts.

However, a visitor’s identity-related visit motivation(s) create a basic

trajectory for the visit.

WHY someone comes to the museum shapes WHAT he/she finds interesting & important.

Long-Term Impact of Experience• Why a person comes to

the museum not only shapes what s/he does in the museum but also his/ her long-term memories and the meanings created about the experience.

So Why Do People Come to Museums?

Explorer

Motivated by Personal CuriosityMotivated by Personal Curiosity

I came here primarily because it interested me and I thought I’d

like it...

Facilitator

Motivated by Other People

I came here primarily because others would

like it or wanted to come.

Experience Seeker

Motivated by Desire to See & Experience Place

I came here because it was an attraction or

thing to do in this community; its

reputation.

Professional/Hobbyist

Motivated by Specific Knowledge-Related GoalsMotivated by Specific Knowledge-Related Goals

I came here primarily because it relates

to something I actively pursue as my

job or my hobby.

Recharger

Motivated by Contemplative or

Restorative Experience

I came here primarily because it will help

me feel refreshed or focused or

appreciative

Cultural Affinity

Motivated by “I” Identity

I came here primarily because it speaks to

my heritage, my sense of personhood.

Respectful Pilgrim

Motivated by Sense of Duty or Obligation

I came here primarily to honor

the memory of those represented

here.

What My Research Shows:

• The majority of visitors to all kinds of museums can be successfully categorized as visiting for one, or some combination, of these 5 (7) identity-related reasons.

Individuals with similar motivations have qualitatively similar visit experiences and long-term patterns of long-term meaning making.

Implications for Practice

Identity-related motivations do not answer all aspects of:* Why visitors come* What they do in the museum* What they take away

However, a wide range of museum functions can benefit

by using this perspective --

Education & Exhibit Design

Marketing & Visitor Services

Education & Exhibit Design:

• By knowing visitor’s entering identity-related visit motivations we can better customize the museum visit experience and provide each visitor what s/he really wants.

• Exhibits and programs, • Including school field• trips, should be • designed to • accommodate the• diversity of visitor • needs and interests.

Marketing & Visitor Studies:

Visitors’ identity-related motivations help us understand why visitors ARE CURRENTLY coming to our museums. They also tells us why people DO NOT CURRENTLY visit.

Visitors’ identity-related motivations provide a way to more accurately measure whether visitors learned from their experiences.