Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Knowing how visitors will understand and use a product is critical to its success, but getting inside their heads is hard. This session will present a case study from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum that describes a few different techniques we used to learn from and with our visitors. In the fall of 2018, we launched a space in one of our temporary exhibition galleries for the express purpose of testing prototypes and conducting formative evaluation. While a dedicated space for testing is a luxury that not all museums can pull off, the spirit is one all museum professionals should embrace. In this session, we will present a few of the tests and share the results and lessons learned that could be applied by anyone who is looking to incorporate formative testing into their workflow. Talking to visitors reveals insights that will not only lead to a better product but also make you a better listener. This season will inspire you to create reasons to talk to them, whether you have a project in mind or not.

Session Type30-Minute Session (Presentation or Case Study)

Chatham House RuleNo

Key OutcomesAfter attending this session, participants will be inspired to create opportunities for learning from visitors and will learn techniques for evaluative thinking. We should be vigilant about testing our assumptions and finding our blindspots and this session will present one way to approach that challenge.

Speaker : Silvina Fernandez-Duque, Product Manager, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum