making the most of corporate social responsibility and volunteer-collected visitor data
DESCRIPTION
Paper presented to the Museums Australia National Conference, Adelaide, September 2012TRANSCRIPT
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?