Digital is growing up and many organizations are striving to use real audience data and work cross-departmentally to design digital experiences that are truly integrated into the visitor experience. So what does this look like and just how achievable is it? The National Gallery, London wanted to create a deeper connection with those visitors coming through the door for the first time. They reviewed existing audience data to redefine their brand and explore what this meant for both their online and in-gallery products and services, engaged in a series of design sprints to define digital opportunities for new digital experiences. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum was seeking to become a more visitor-centered organization but lacked a process and a shared understanding across departments. Tthe team carried out primary research and used this the data to develop journey maps that served as a springboard to design new experiences for first-time visitors. Working cross-departmentally and using audience data to design digital experiences allows organizations to reveal and tackle real opportunities and it provides mechanisms to encourage and support working across silos. But it isn’t a cure all and the session will include candid discussion of the challenges of taking action on the insights and realizing the ideas that emerge from these processes.

1. Moving from aspiration to action and changing the experience for first time visitors #MW2017–T36
LAURA MANN, FRANKLY, GREEN + WEBB
LAWRENCE CHILES, NATIONAL GALLERY, LONDON
MICHELLE GROHE, ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER MUSEUM, BOSTON
LINDSEY GREEN, FRANKLY, GREEN + WEBB

2. What we’re going to cover today
• An introduction: Why first time visitors? Why at MCN?
• At the National Gallery
• At the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
• A reflection: what these audiences need and what it takes to
deliver for them
2

3. Why first time visitors?
3

4. Why first time visitors?
42% 65%
4

5. First time audiences
Are more likely to be…
• Less frequent museum visitors
• Unfamiliar with the topic
• Unfamiliar with your museum
5

6. First time visitors are consistently
the people having the hardest
time and potentially one of the
easiest groups to help.
6

7. The future vitality of museums
depends on attracting new
audiences
7

8. 9% of core
museum
visitors
are
minorities
(2011)
@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green8

9. You are not this
audience
9

10. Why MCN?
10

11. How might we make more
audience-centered digital
products and services?
11

12. @lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green12

13. @lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green13

14. One approach
One audience
Two different organizations
Two different outcomes
14@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green

15. National Gallery
15

16. A bit of background
The National Gallery, London
The story of European art, masterpiece by masterpiece. We collect
and care for the nation’s paintings and we share them with the
world.
Over 2300 works of art - focused collection, deep knowledge and
expertise
16@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green

17. A bit of background
The story of European art, masterpiece by masterpiece. We collect
and care for the nation’s paintings and we share them with the
world.
Over 2300 works of art - focused collection, deep knowledge and
expertise
17@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green

18. A bit of background
New Digital Services Programme
To look at the complete visitor journey: Brand identity, Digital Designs
and Wayfinding
We audited the technology spaghetti
We segmented the audience: 4 main profiles = 70% of the audience
18@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green

19. Why first time visitors for us?
NDS objective was to define a ‘personal art journey’ - to grow
engagement and connect people with art
Followed segmentation work with quantitative and qualitative
additional research
Of the 6.5 million people through the door approx 2.8 million are
new to the Gallery and new to art
19@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green

20. Why first time visitors for us?
20@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green

21. What did we do?
21@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green

22. What did we do?
22@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green

23. What did we do?
“I wouldn’t be familiar with a lot of paintings, so I’d have
probably walked past a lot of famous ones by famous
people just because they wouldn’t have been instantly
recognisable to me”
Young British Adult
“I need some structure for this cause, terribly, these all
look the same to me”
New World Sightseer
23@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green

24. What did we do?
Journey mapping with reps from across the organisation
Design/content sprint 1
- Focused on what the audience needed in the Gallery
- 3 days of iteration and development
- Tested the value propositions
24@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green

25. Lightbulb moments
- People know us but not our story
- People might know a painting but don’t know where to go next
- Language is a huge barrier (65% overseas visitors)
- Visitors unsure what questions to ask
25@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green

26. What was the outcome?
26@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green

27. What did we do?
Design/Content sprint 2
- Came several months after the initial work
- 3 day sprint again but more content/collection focused
- Approach was more audience informed process rather than
addressing audience needs
27@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green

28. What was the outcome?
Overall project has influenced next 2 years of planning
Audience segmentation embedded across the organisation
Brand tone of voice about to be rolled out
Content strategy (episodes) endorsed
Methodology of audience-focused projects is more understood and
now desired
Structure of team has now been set up a team to deliver
28@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green

29. 29

30. A bit of background
30@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green

31. Why first time visitors for us
31@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green

32. What did we do?
32@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green

33. What did we do?
33@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green

34. VX
Educa-
tion
Market-
ing
Digital
Visitor
Services
Security
Collect-
ions
Contem
porary
Develop
ment
Member
-ship
Café G
Gift
Management VX Steering CommitteeVisitor Experience Team
@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green34

35. What is Visitor Experience at the Gardner?
Ensures a positive experience for all visitors, in which they feel welcome and supported
through their wayfinding, meaning-making and interaction with the Museum’s collection,
exhibitions, and programming.
To ensure VX is a priority internally, the Gardner is rethinking staff roles, encouraging cross-
departmental collaborations, and using visitor-centered problem-solving to best meet
visitors’ needs and interests.
We are working on designing an integrated and holistic service where physical, human,
and digital work together.
35@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green

36. Our Visitor Experience Principles
1. Visitors feel welcome during their entire visit
2. The path from entry to art is brief
3. Visitors have a personal, high-touch experience (feel supported)
4. Visitors understand the museum's offer (what we provide)
5. Visitors are able to get more information when they want it and have their questions
answered all along their journey (about founder, museum, collection)
6. Visitors find it easy to navigate the museum
7. Visitor needs to pause and recharge are met
8. Visitors understand what a return visit would offer them
36@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green

37. What was the outcome?
37@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green

38. Digital is only one part of improving visitor
experience.
38

39. What was the outcome?
39@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green

40. What next?
1. Visitor service training for all staff
2. Human interpretation audit
3. Analytics for on-site website use
4. Work collaboratively via our Digital Task Force
5. Continue to collect data to understand our visitors
40@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green

41. What did we learn?
41

42. One approach
One audience
Two different organisations
Two different outcomes
42@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green

43. What do we now know
about first time audiences?
43

44. By default, we design for people who…
1. Know what your museum has to offer
2. Look at your museum website in advance.
3. Know how to make choices in what to see or do
4. Feel comfortable and confident in your museum
5. Want to use your new, shiny digital product or service because
it’s new and shiny
6. Have specific knowledge or interest in your museum’s
collection.
7. Strongly motivated to seek out extra information
8. Know how you want them to behave
9. Make firm plans to come back to your museum.
44@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green

45. First time visitors…
1. Don’t know what your museum has to offer
2. Don’t look at your museum website in advance.
3. Don’t know how to make choices in what to see or do
4. Don’t feel comfortable and confident in your museum
5. Don’t want to use your new, shiny digital product or service
because it’s new and shiny
6. Don’t have specific knowledge or interest in your museum’s
collection.
7. Aren’t strongly motivated to seek out extra information
8. Don’t know how you want them to behave
9. Don’t make firm plans to come back to your museum.
45@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green

46. We are not meeting
the needs of first
time visitors.
46@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green

47. We design friction into their experience
We make them work harder
We make tools hard to find
We re-enforce this place is not for me
47@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green

48. Digital technologies have been adding to the
cognitive overload
48@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green

49. What is this?
What should
you do first?
Try doing
this
Why is it
here?
Scaffold understanding of topic and build skills
to use the museum
49@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green

50. Help them to
make decisions
based on what
is relevant to
them
50@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green

51. Be transparent about what you offer and
demonstrate who you are not just by what you
say but by what you do and how you speak
51@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green
https://www.wethecurious.or
g/event/bristol-changing-
we-curious

52. Delivering Audience-Centred
Design in Museums
52

53. Common things this process delivers
1. Build a deeper and more nuanced understanding of target
audience across the organisation
2. Start with digital department but gives other departments a
deeper understanding of what digital can and can’t do
3. Reconnects colleagues with the audience
53@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green

54. The most significant
challenges are the
complexity of the service
ecology and getting
permission to act
54@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green

55. Get a mandate and a budget to solve a
problem.
Visitors need
support to prepare
for their visit
they can make
decisions that
will affect their
enjoyment of the
museum
We need to
improve the
website
55@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green

56. We need to develop skills
and tools to critically
evaluate ideas around
what is important to the
organisation and what is
valuable to the audience
Large
audience
Small
audience
Small
impact
Big
impact
56@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green

57. Create an environment where colleagues can
prioritise and focus on the audience
57@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green

58. What does this mean for
future audience-centred
museums?
58

59. The experience is our product
@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green59

60. But we’ve structured our organisations to deliver exhibitions
@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green60

61. A structure to deliver targetted audience-centred experiences
@lhmann @chilesl @michellegrohe @lindsey_green61