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"This year's Communicating the Museum conference is being held in the elegant, creative and historic German city of Düsseldorf. Our theme this year is the Visitor Experience and the vital role it plays in building and retaining audiences. Leading international speakers and practitioners will present important and ground-breaking thoughts and ideas on: * creating the very best experience for all visitors * cutting edge visitor research from around the world * generating income from visitors * the dynamic and creative relationship between marketing and the visitor experience - the unified tone of voice and customer service * brand and the visitor experience * interpretation and learning * the future of the visitor experience - on-line and beyond"

But the simplest evidence I have for the statement that design impacts visitor contributions comes from a formative evaluation performed at LACMALab for their nano exhibition in 2004. In the report, evaluator Marianna Adams described a simple experiment in visitor response. LACMALab took one question--"What connections do you see between art and science?"--and created two ways for visitors to respond. In March, visitors were offered white 4"x6" notecards and golf pencils. In April, these were replaced with blue hexagonal cards and full-size pencils.

Interactive Radio: Exploring Visitors Stories using a Radio Interface: << ROOM OF OPINION>> Retracing the past: exploring objects, stories, mysteries (June 2003) was an exhibition held in the Hunt Museum The Hunt Museum and the Interaction Design Centre of The University of Limerick, in Ireland, jointly developed this exhibition. At that exhibition there was a Room of pinion where visitiors coul leave a message about the nature and possible use of some mysterious objects. Comments were collected, and visitors could listen to them in rel time through a radio in the Sudy room. The sound of earlier opinions also generated a sort of murmur that was heard in the same room. Comments were made using an interactive telephone. A visual analogue of the prcess of storing the comments could be seen in a dynamic graühic display representing a visual trace of these opinions. Visitors could see and listen to their own comments recorded. (hier zitiert nach Salgado, ., Breaking Apart Participation in Museums, S. 3f)

One of the most common questions we get is about the use of computers in museum settings.  Are they necessary?  Should museums be putting them in to attract broader audiences?  Do visitors expect them?  Or do visitors come to museums for other reasons?

Museum aan de stroom - a brand-new city museum covering the art, shipping and folklore of Antwerp, Belgium - is offering web visitors real, real-time guides. Through June 7, visitors to the museum's website can interact with, and direct, flesh-and-blood guides through their Discover the MAS Live program and website.

Museums are exploring digital and mobile technologies to enhance visitor experience. Initiatives go beyond technology within exhibits and installations, but also include more pervasive uses of tech to create interactive experiences for visitors throughout a museum, as well as remote experiences for those who cannot get there.

While museums have long strived to be welcoming places as well as havens of learning, social media is turning them into virtual community centers. On Facebook or Twitter or almost any museum Web site, everyone has a voice, and a vote. Curators and online visitors can communicate, learning from one another. As visitors bring their hand-held devices to visits, the potential for interactivity

The ubiquity of mobile devices and the advent of augmented reality provide an opportunity to explore the use of interactive design in what is traditionally a difficult educational space: the art museum. The NGA Experience app (shown here on an iPhone but theoretically platform-agnostic) uses augmented reality to populate the art museum with a digital layer of content that is virtually infinite, yet completely optional for visitors. Such an application of AR in the museum ultimately provides a greater level of control and engagement to the museum visitor and enhances his or her opportunity for a meaningful experience without altering the physical space of the gallery.

Where Do We Go From Here? Continuing with Web 2.0 at the Brooklyn Museum "As we moved forward with Web 2.0 and social media in 2007, we had two objectives in mind while overhauling earlier initiatives and creating new projects for visitors: * Keep it real: We aimed to personalize content as much as possible, since Web 2.0 for the Brooklyn Museum is all about social connections and growing communities. * Deliver content their way: Museum surveys have shown that visitors want to consume more information in shorter visits. Hence, we wanted to allow our audiences to easily receive information from the Museum, and dynamically share it with others. We continued to focus on our community-oriented, visitor-centered mission, and these goals became paramount as we thought about (and adjusted) our early initiatives; they also served as philosophical barometers when we created new projects. "

Museum 2.0: iPod application for visitors .. The museum will provide visitors with an iPod Touch that has a detailed guide to the collection. TNO carried out the research and advised on the application.

Students developed a set of prototype smartphone apps for the Museum of Modern Art, based on a field study of museum visitors.

Students developed a set of prototype smartphone apps for the Museum of Modern Art, based on a field study of museum visitors. After synthesizing their research findings and developing a set of personas, the students began prototyping and testing their product concepts. Finally, they presented their concepts to a panel of representatives from the Museum of Modern Art. These presentations reflect the research and design methods used throughout the process.

The Animal Bytes project at the Museum of Zoology is capturing stories of the Museum and responses to its collections from staff and visitors of all kinds.

Launched in March 2010, Object Stories invites visitors to record their own narratives about personal objects-whether a piece of clothing, a cherished record album, or a family heirloom.  By capturing, honoring, and sharing participants' stories, this project aims to demystify the Museum, making it more accessible, welcoming, and meaningful to a greater diversity of communities - while continuing to highlight the inherent relationship between people and things.  Nearly one thousand people from throughout Portland-most of who had never before set foot in the Museum-have participated as storytellers in this project.

Potential museum visitors access information about the organization and decide if they want to visit by using web-based sites such as a museum's website, social media platforms, and peer-review sites over more "traditional" forms of advertising. In fact, when comparing how folks get their information about leisure activities, it's not even close: web and mobile platforms (including social media) are disproportionately influencing your museum's visitation and attendance.

At the Brooklyn Museum's Target First Saturdays, thousands of visitors enjoy free programs of art and entertainment each month from 5-11 p.m. During Target First Saturday in October, show us how the Museum looks through your eyes: bring your video camera, digital camera, or cell phone, and film a one-minute video.

In the conference's closing plenary, leading museum thinkers teamed up to participate in formal, Oxford-style debates about thought-provoking questions faced by today's museum professionals. This year's debate topics were: Museums that are not run as businesses will ultimately fail. Engagement with online-only visitors is as important as engagement with those on site.

I was reminded of these two design principles when exploring the Johnny Cash Project, a crowd-created music video for a posthumous recording of Cash singing "Ain't No Grave." To construct the video, artist Chris Milk assembled images and footage of Johnny Cash in a sequence along with the song. That's hardly revolutionary. But what happened next is: Milk created a simple tool to invite visitors to augment the frames of the video with digital brushstrokes. The result is a beautiful animated video that composites together alternative frames created by participants all over the world.

Students developed a set of prototype smartphone apps for the Museum of Modern Art, based on a field study of museum visitors. After synthesizing their research findings and developing a set of personas, the students began prototyping and testing their product concepts. Finally, they presented their concepts to a panel of representatives from the Museum of Modern Art. These presentations reflect the research and design methods used throughout the process.

Auch fuers Brooklyn Museum gilt: weniger ist mehr. As museums look for ways to attract more visitors, social media has become a key tool in drawing people along and engaging them. Some museums are trying to be more creative with social media, but step one is to make use of the main tools. Brooklyn Museum is certainly doing that. It has a main web site, a blog, a Facebook Page, a Twitter presence, a Flickr account, a Tumblr, a Foursquare, and more.

Crowdcuratd: Click! is a photography exhibition that invites Brooklyn Museum's visitors, the online community, and the general public to participate in the exhibition process

Click! is a photography exhibition that invites Brooklyn Museum's visitors, the online community, and the general public to participate in the exhibition process