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Engaging audiences: what do visitors want?

What do visitors want from their museum visit?

Research has shown that visitors have the following wants when visiting museums:

experiences that encourage discovery, interaction, cater for the unexpected, provide many pathways to explore, give a taste for what happens behind-the-scenes and are fun
content that is challenging, real, authoritative, meaningful, encourages questions and is well-organised and easy to navigate
staff that can relate to all kinds of visitors, are respectful of visitors’ ideas and views, are knowledgeable in their field and are easy to talk to
opportunities to socialise, hang out with family/friends and learn together

What do you think?

Dr Lynda Kelly , Manager Online, Editing and Audience Research
Last Updated: 26 March 2010

4 comments

STAFF

Lynda Kelly
5.07 PM, 29 July 2010

Thnx for your comment. As mentioned earlier, there is not one that is most important for visitors - it depends on a range of factors.

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s41
9.05 PM, 12 May 2010

Lynda, Would you say from your findings that 'experiences that encourage discovery' are important to people? And how do Australian Museums facilitate this?

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STAFF

Lynda Kelly
7.07 AM, 31 July 2009

Hi there and thnx for your interest. What I've found is that factor is not more important than another. What tends to happen is that a combination of these are uppermost in visitors' minds and these are fluid and changing. One or more factors may be more prominent at particular times or visit circumstances. However, if I did have to nominate one it would be the social aspects of the visit - that is the most consistent finding in all the research I (and others) have done.