Seasonal Study of Visitors’ Experiences in the New MIT Museum’s Galleries

Experience Design Research
Written By Cathy Sigmond

Client: MIT Museum | Location: Cambridge, MA

 
 

We led a comprehensive two-season study of visitors’ onsite experience and the lasting impact of a visit to the MIT Museum’s galleries—the first study of its kind at the museum’s new location.  

OVERVIEW

A year after opening the doors to its new museum building in the Kendall Square Innovation District—with greatly expanded gallery space and refreshed interpretation—the MIT Museum sought to understand its new onsite visitor experience to inform strategic planning and future decision making.  

They called on us to help them answer these key questions: Who are walk-in visitors to the MIT Museum? How do they experience the MIT Museum’s galleries? And, what are the lasting effects of their gallery visit?

APPROACH

We designed a multi-method study to address the MIT Museum’s key questions and collected data over the spring and summer of 2024 through:

  • Unobtrusive Timing and Tracking observations, to understand visitors’ time spent and behaviors in the Museum’s galleries, 

  • An interview-style Exit Survey, to gather visitors’ motivations for visiting, their immediate impressions of the galleries, as well as their demographic and psychographic characteristics, and 

  • Virtual Longitudinal Interviews, to understand what ideas and impressions stuck with visitors 2-4 weeks after their gallery visit.   

To share findings with as many interested parties as possible, we produced both a detailed technical report for internal audiences and a short summary document for external stakeholders. We also presented results in a dynamic meeting with the museum’s entire staff and led a reflection and strategy session with the museum’s core management team. The MIT Museum is actively using insights from the study to fuel strategic planning and future gallery interpretation decisions for both the short and long term.

CLIENT TAKEAWAYS

The MIT Museum is actively using these insights to fuel strategic planning and future gallery interpretation decisions for both the short and long term.

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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