Four-Season Visitor Experience Study at the United States Botanic Garden

Written By Cathy Sigmond

Client: United States Botanic Garden | Location: Washington, DC

 
 

We led a four-season visitor study at the United States Botanic Garden to understand how visitors use and experience the Conservatory and two distinct outdoor gardens. 

OVERVIEW

In 2023, we began a yearlong visitor study at the United States Botanic Garden (USBG) to understand how visitors experience the entire USBG campus, including the Conservatory building, the main building that houses an array of exhibitions and living collections; the Gated Outdoor Gardens, a three-acre dynamic collection of formal and naturalistic gardens located next to the Conservatory; and Bartholdi Fountain and Gardens, a two-acre garden showcasing sustainable landscaping and design, located across the street from the Conservatory.

USBG’s last visitor study was in 2013, and staff were eager to understand their current visitors and their experiences, how experiences might differ across USBG’s three unique indoor and outdoor spaces, and any seasonal differences.

APPROACH

We used three complementary methods to understand visitor experience from multiple angles:

  • Visitor exit surveys to understand visitor characteristics, motivations, and experiences

  • Unobtrusive observations in the form of timing and tracking and scan observations to explore visitors behavior and engagement during the visit

  • Audience segmentation to help USBG conceptualize different types of visitors based on their psychographics (values, motivations, preferences)

CLIENT TAKEAWAYS

Our study provided useful insights into USBG’s visitor experience, some expected and some unexpected. We found that while visitors to USBG’s indoor and outdoor spaces share many characteristics, there are also important differences—for example, data suggest Bartholdi Fountain and Gardens is being used more by working professionals and DC locals compared to its other spaces (which USBG suspected). We also found that visitors spend about four times longer in the Conservatory than the Gated Outdoor Gardens, regardless of season. 

Moreover, audience segmentation helped USBG think about their visitors in terms of their motivations and visit preferences (e.g., universal enthusiasts who like all types of experiences, independent learners who value exploring and learning on their own, and sensory explorers who seek out experiences like smell and touch that engage their senses) rather than focusing on demographics.

Cathy Sigmond

Cathy brings many years of experience in education and experience design to her role as Head of Strategy at Kera Collective. 

Having previously worked in a variety of educational settings, Cathy is driven by her constant fascination and delight at how people make discoveries about the familiar and the unfamiliar. 

Cathy loves helping to shape experiences that spark curiosity and make a difference in people’s lives. She particularly enjoys the rapid, iterative nature of design-based research and the deep insights that come from qualitative research, especially on projects exploring interactions with the digital and built environments. 

Cathy shares her passion for experience design research widely and regularly guest lectures for graduate programs, including the Fashion Institute of Technology’s Exhibition and Experience Design Program and the Pratt Institute’s School of Information. Cathy served as the co-chair of the Museum Computer Network’s Human-Centered Design special interest group from 2018-2021.

Outside of work, you can usually find Cathy playing soccer, thrifting, or making her way through her large cookbook collection. 

Cathy’s favorite museum experiences are immersive; she will always vividly remember walking through the giant heart at the Franklin Institute, being surrounded by birds at the Peabody Essex Museum, and hearing centuries-old instruments come to life at the Museum of Musical Instruments. 

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