Understanding the visitor experience provides essential insights into how museums can affect people’s lives. Personal drives, group identity, decision-making and meaning-making strategies, memory, and leisure preferences, all enter into the visitor experience, which extends far beyond the walls of the institution both in time and space. Drawing upon a career in studying museum visitors, renowned researcher John Falk attempts to create a predictive model of visitor experience, one that can help museum professionals better meet those visitors’ needs. He identifies five key types of visitors who attend museums and then defines the internal processes that drive them there over and over again. Through an understanding of how museums shape and reflect their personal and group identity, Falk is able to show not only how museums can increase their attendance and revenue, but also their meaningfulness to their constituents.
IDENTITY AND THE MUSEUM VISITOR EXPERIENCE
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Editorial Reviews
Review
John Falk’s determined focus on the visitor’s experience continues to transform our understanding of the relationship between museums and their audiences. Identity and the Museum Visitor Experience demonstrates that Falk remains the leading voice in the field of museum learning. For the first time he moves beyond theory and proposes a model that museums can use to explore how to serve their visitors in more meaningful ways. -Nannette V. Maciejunes, Columbus Museum of Art
John Falk's most exciting work reframes frustrating old questions in new ways that bring immediate clarity. In this important book, Falk shifts the old issue of visitor segmentation away from stable traits to ephemeral dispositions. His new formulation shows us visitors who actually seem to belong to the same species as ourselves, and whose differences relate to understandable differences in the ways that they perceive and use exhibitions. –Jay Rounds, E. Desmond Lee Professor of Museum Studies, University of Missouri St. Louis, and former editor of the Exhibitionist Journal
This book should be read by anyone serious about visitor experiences in museums. Falk reconceptualises the field from a wholistic perspective using the ‘lens’ of visitor identity and motivation. The model he proposes will shape and inform the nature, design and understanding of visitor experiences in free-choice learning environments. –Roy Ballantyne, University of Queensland, and editor of Visitor Studies Journal
John Falk's most exciting work reframes frustrating old questions in new ways that bring immediate clarity. In this important book, Falk shifts the old issue of visitor segmentation away from stable traits to ephemeral dispositions. His new formulation shows us visitors who actually seem to belong to the same species as ourselves, and whose differences relate to understandable differences in the ways that they perceive and use exhibitions. –Jay Rounds, E. Desmond Lee Professor of Museum Studies, University of Missouri St. Louis, and former editor of the Exhibitionist Journal
This book should be read by anyone serious about visitor experiences in museums. Falk reconceptualises the field from a wholistic perspective using the ‘lens’ of visitor identity and motivation. The model he proposes will shape and inform the nature, design and understanding of visitor experiences in free-choice learning environments. –Roy Ballantyne, University of Queensland, and editor of Visitor Studies Journal
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Drawing upon a career in studying museum visitors, renowned researcher John Falk attempts to create a predictive model of visitor experience, one that can help museum professionals better meet those visitors’ needs.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I was extremely impressed with Falk's book. In this book he talks about five museum visitor identities: Explorer, Facilitator, Experience Seeker, Professional/Hobbyist, and Recharger. Instead of thinking of general demographics of museum visitors, such as age, race, gender, etc., Falk recommends thinking of visitors in one of these five visitor identities. Doing so will help the museum better meet the needs of the community.
I currently work at a museum complex in Lehi, Utah called Thanksgiving Point, and I look forward to incorporating the ideas in Falk's book into our practices here. In doing so I hope to see not only an increase in revenue, but also an increase in the public's perceived value of our museum complex. I plan on conducting research to test many of the ideas presented in this book.
This book has caused me to rethink how I look at visitors that attend museums. It has shown me how I can more fully focus on their needs, instead of just thinking of the objectives of the museum. It is an excellent read for anyone in the museum field or anyone interested in free-choice learning in general.
I currently work at a museum complex in Lehi, Utah called Thanksgiving Point, and I look forward to incorporating the ideas in Falk's book into our practices here. In doing so I hope to see not only an increase in revenue, but also an increase in the public's perceived value of our museum complex. I plan on conducting research to test many of the ideas presented in this book.
This book has caused me to rethink how I look at visitors that attend museums. It has shown me how I can more fully focus on their needs, instead of just thinking of the objectives of the museum. It is an excellent read for anyone in the museum field or anyone interested in free-choice learning in general.
By Geek Chick
Format:Paperback
I came into museum education from the field of secondary education, and was looking for books to provide an orientation to how museum educators and visitor experience professionals think about making their institutions meaningful and engaging for their audiences. I got this book for Christmas, and I devoured half of it that day. Falk cites a body of research conducted by himself, his research partner Lynn Dierking, and others, at LA's California Science Center over decades. While the book isn't overly technical (it pulls mostly qualitative data), Falk & Dierking's mixed methods provide a compelling case for the framework they've developed for both visitor identity and learning in informal spaces. As someone with a strong background in pedagogy and learning theory, this book was an excellent bridge between theories and museum practice. I introduced it to my staff, and while there was some initial push-back, they had to admit that the visitor identities provided ring true to our visitorship and provide a helpful lens for thinking about programming and supplementary materials.
4 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By John D. Farr
Format:Paperback
If you are involved with any public facility and what some fresh insight to the operations of a museum, this will help you and your Board re-evaluate what you do in a fresh new way--seeing it from the visitors point of view!
