Making the most of corporate social

responsibility and volunteer-collected visitor data

Jenny Parsons, South Australian Museum

Regan Forrest, South Australian Museum (UQ)

Project context Volunteer data collection What to do with the data? Data analysis Applying the findings Lessons learned

Presentation Overview

The Opportunity Official Reason Unofficial Reason Desired Outcomes

A better visitor experience Relationship development Institutional learning

Project context

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

Australian Aboriginal Cultures Gallery (AACG)

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

Volunteer-led data collection

Sample tracking sheets

 Sample size n=92, 59 males and 64 females (G

Floor) Mean Dwell Time: 9.1 minutesMedian Dwell Time: 5.0 minutesMode Dwell Time: 5.0 minutes

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)

Descriptive Statistics

13-1819-3940-6565+

1-3 4-6 7-9 10-12 13-15 16-18 19-21 22-24 25-27 28-30 30+0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

AACG Dwell Time

Minutes spent in gallery

Num

ber

of

vis

itors

64%

20%

Visitor Entry Paths:

18%

Median Dwell Visitors (n=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

Zoning the AACG

• Overlay gallery plan to divide into 24 ‘zones’

• Count each entry into a zone as well as overall direction where applicable

• Code direction numerically (0, 45, 90, 135, 180, 235, 270, 315)

1 entryDirection = 90

2 entriesDirection = n/a

1 entryDirection = 135

1 entryDirection = n/a

2 entriesDirection = 90

Number Crunching

Sum of entries

for each zone

Comparison to ‘average’

(Total entries for all

zones /24)

Mode reveals most

common direction

Compare with

opposite direction

Rest assured – this looks a lot nastier than it really is!

Visually Representing Visitor Movement

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

What this told us and how we used it

The AACG Renovation

Before After

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.

Lessons learned

Questions?