How Museums Can Optimize the Visitor Experience

The role of museums is shifting from conventional conservation and exhibition to educational responsibilities with the goal of increasing visitors’ learning experiences. This tendency has also sparked concern in museum display studies, as it reflects the role of technology today in allowing museum visitors to gather knowledge more actively.

Museums, like any other organization or institution that interacts with people, must envision themselves in the position of their visitors. The list of factors that might determine a visitor’s experience is varied and extensive. It includes everything that can occur between the time a person decides to visit a museum and the time they spend there and leave.

In most museums across the United States, artifacts are displayed in a case or on a wall with corresponding descriptive labels. Visitors are expected to stop and read the information as they move through the display to look at the objects. Visitors are expected to absorb information as they spend time reading and looking at objects in this setting.

On the other hand, learning at a museum is impacted by personal context and is driven by various motivational elements, including the physical surroundings. Today’s visitors are now often looking for an emotional experience. As a result, museums are expected to be both educational and entertaining.

Museums need to be aware that their visitors are diverse in character, with everyone having a distinct personality, culture, degree of knowledge and education, and personal circumstances. As a result, each exhibition’s look should be capable of meeting the preferences of a variety of visitors. As a result, an effective exhibition interface design, a suitable physical exhibition hall, and successful museum visitor engagement are required.

Museums have clamored against the use of smartphones for years, asking visitors to turn their phones off and focus on the works of art or artifacts in front of them. However, many major museums throughout the world have embraced contemporary technologies in their museum marketing and are enjoying the advantages.

For example, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City features a mobile-friendly website and app that guides visitors through its works on display. People use their smartphones to learn more about the works they see and to find similar pieces. According to a museum’s digital officer, Netflix, Candy Crush, and the inclination to stay at home rather than explore the city have become alternatives to museum visits over time.

When surveyed, visitors to various museums expressed their dissatisfaction with security officers at museums dressed in official-looking uniforms. They noted that the appearances of the museum guards do not make for an enjoyable museum experience. In response, the Walker Art Center replaced its guards’ uniforms with “friendlier” khakis and vests.

Finally, Museums can build exhibitions tailored to followers to promote on social media. Instead of depriving visitors of the opportunity to tell their friends about what they see, museums can encourage them to snap photos and share the museum’s material online. Visitor-generated content can go a long way toward improving a museum’s image while supporting its marketing efforts.

The Museum of Ice Cream in New York became well-known almost overnight on Instagram after allowing visitors to snap photos of the numerous exhibits and share them online. In New York, the museum’s available tickets sold out in five days.