Julian - Preliminary Reflection: Visitor Survey

Introduction and Methodology. In general, I am not happy with my visitor survey. I don't think I was able to get a good variety of responses and I wasn't overly pleased with how I conducted my oral interviews during the first portion of the survey. I did include a multiple choice section. I think people were generally accurate, with a potential source of error being that some of the respondents answering the question from the perspective of their children. 

The front page was conducted as a verbal interview, while the second was handed to the recipient after the interview was completed.

I'd like to interview more people, improve my survey format, survey guests over a greater variety of times and days, and find a way to collect more data about the motivations of the children and family members of those who I interviewed.

Results. 

Guest Types

Respondents

Interview Based Estimation

Explorer

1 + 1*

1

Professional

0

1

Facilitator

2

2

Experience Seeker

4 + 1*

4

Recharger

0

0

*The mother who was homeschooling her kids marked both Explorer and Experience Seeker. Based on their interview, I gave her Professional instead.

All but two respondents were local members that lived less than 20 minutes away from the museum, had recently visited, and intended to visit again within a week or two. The remaining two responses were both travelling families from out of state, one from New Jersey and one from Minneapolis. The former family was on vacation and primarily interested in entertaining their children for a few minutes, a similar reason to their visit to the California Science Center. The latter family came to MOXI as part of the home-schooling regimen for their kids. They were travelling on an RV from their hometown south along the California Coast from the Bay Area. This is the last time they visited a museum 3 weeks prior in San Francisco. This respondent was very hesitant to select just one answer on the multiple choice question. Based on her statements, I believe that this was a reflection of her values: one one hand she identified herself as an experience seeker with a social family obligation, on the other hand, she was also attempting to experience the museum's content herself. However, in her interview, she talked about homeschooling and finding educational activities for their kids. I was not able to observe them further, and it is possible that she left their kids to their own devices and was thus accurate in her 'explorer' selection. 

Commentary. Interestingly, none of the member respondents marked the description for 'Recharger' despite their frequent visitations. Instead, they identified the Innovation Workshop or other exhibit as a matter of interest and said that they decided to visit on that day because their kid specifically requested they visit that space or exhibit. While as an observer, I'd be inclined to guess that the parent is comfortable bringing their kids here, and that they are relieved by the environment, it only plays a minor role in why they decided to come. 

Since I characterized the survey as looking for the specific impetus of their particular visit, they all correctly, I believe, interpreted the questions and answered. One group, for example, decided to come because a friend at school mentioned their own experience the previous Sunday. 

Reflection. The data is, in my experience, representative of Weekday afternoons and evenings at MOXI, but of any other times or occasions. Due to logistics, work, school, etc., many guests are unable to make it. The primary take away, in my opinion, is that decisions related to hours, staffing, and other logistical aspects can be made based on the predictive behavior of our guests, based on their identity related categorization. 

Most of the guests made a beeline for the innovation workshop. Many experience the new November activities for the first time and enjoyed learning new skills, like typewriting, stitching, and more. I believe that these are the times that a big difference can be made. Over the course of the month, these guests who told me they attend every week can truly develop new skills and knowledge. 

Of course, MOXI could also tailor the experience based on the knowledge of what types of guests appear when. Even without specific identity data, we know that weekday afternoons are dominated by members and are likely to return to the museum in the coming weeks or months. With specific identity data, for example, if we were to learn that members who bring their kids on weekday afternoons believe that MOXI is a good learning experience for their kids and for themselves (thus affirming they are a good parent) would be more open to Sparks introducing new skills and tools in the IWS. 

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