Brooklyn Museum
Audience Evaluation
Role: Audience Researcher & Evaluator
Location: Brooklyn Museum
Date: Jan 2022 - May 2022
Collaborators: Jamie Chen, Danielle Kingberg, Rachel Jackson, Chris Denny, Jun Hou Kok, Devin Alford, Verena Tanzil
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Monet to Morisot: The Real and Unimagined in European Art
is an exhibition in the Brooklyn Museum featuring 19th and early 20th-century European artists. About 90
works are exhibited featuring various artists during this period that went through significant cultural and artistic changes. Speaking to the exhibition curator, it was essential to understand how people that entered the exhibition moved through the space and understood the story the exhibition was telling.
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Eight graduate students with a lead evaluator from the Brooklyn Museum grouped to answer the questions that the exhibition curator had about the space. These questions included topics regarding the design of the space, the flow of visitors through the space, and the time it takes for visitors to navigate through the exhibit.
From that meeting, the evaluators summarized the concerns with a research question.
How does the layout and design of the Monet to Morisot exhibition influence visitors' physical movements through the space and their understanding of the story the exhibition tells?
To answer the question, our team conducted research to collect data. The data collection was performed in person, connecting with visitors as they entered the exhibit. This method allowed the evaluators to view visitors navigating through the space in real-time.
To conduct the evaluation, the evaluators approached visitors entering the exhibition. Three evaluation methods were used: observations, interviews, and talk-alouds. We approached visitors before they entered Monet to Morisot. A sign was put out letting the audience know research was taking place. Our team also asked for consent before performing any research method. This was done to evaluate the functionality of the exhibition by taking into consideration the thoughts and actions of visitors that engage with the exhibit.
Methodology
60 visitors who gave verbal consent were observed were tracked, timed and interviewed. 6 selected participants voicing out their thought while accompanied by our team, whom were also observed and interviewed.
Observations
Observations were used to map out the path of the visitor being evaluated.
Interviews
Interviews took place after every observation. The visitor participated once they exited the exhibit.
Talk-Alouds
The participants were asked to say their thoughts aloud
during their navigation of the exhibit.
Meet our Participants
From the interviews, the evaluators were able to learn who the people the evaluators observed are and their overall thought on the exhibit. The questions were divided between getting to know the visitor and asking them about their experience through the space. Some questions were optional, so not all questions listed in the interview questions list were answered by all visitors. Of the 66 visitors interviewed, this is how they responded.
"Are you a member of the Brooklyn Museum"
Only 9 of the 66 individuals are members
Of the 9 participants that are members:
Of the 37 individuals here is how many times they have visited:
"Have you visited the Brooklyn Museum before?"
37 individuals have visited before
“On a scale of 1-5, 1 being pretty new to art and 5 being total art nerd, how familiar are you with the exhibition?”
Overview of Results
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The evaluators analyzed the observations, interviews, and talk-alouds separately. Once
those were analyzed the data was brought together for comparison. The evaluators
were able to summarize paths, behaviors, and time spent in the exhibition by visitors.
Interviews
This is how the participants responded to our questions
Participant X
“[It was] Perfect. The round walls are beautiful. I have never seen round walls in an art exhibit be used like that."
Participant Y
"It felt like I didn’t know ”where the beginning or the end was especially with the two doorways"
Participant Z
"[I would love to see] signage or arrows in the beginning to indicate which direction viewers are meant to move through the exhibit."
Observations
We observed 66 visitors & recorded their paths/behaviors/time spent. The average group size was 2 people and time spent in the exhibit was 19 minutes.
41% turned left, 59% turned right
50% of visitors took this path
The most common path taken by visitors from the entrance.
This density map of the exhibition was made by tracing each visitor’s observation with a blue line. This map reflects which paths were favored
Blue- Medium Density, Red- High Density
Talk-Alouds
The evaluators performed a sentiment analysis on the data by pulling quotes from the talk-alouds and applying a sentiment to that quote being negative, positive, or neutral.The evaluators also categorized each quote to what the participant was discussing:artwork, layout, labels, wall color, and wayfinding.​
The chart shows the visitor's overall sentiment by exhibit component.
Analyzing the talk-alouds, there was an overall alignment of what people said in their talk-alouds to what other visitors noted during their interviews. The evaluators transcribed the recordings and from the transcriptions were able to determine the most used descriptive words and the overall sentiments from visitors towards the exhibit.​Overall, there were positive sentiments from talk-aloud participants towards the exhibit.Participants stopped to look at the artwork rather than read descriptions. Below are examples of quotes from talk-aloud participants that helped conclude thesesentiments.
Insights
Interviewing people after observation gave insight as to how they felt towards the exhibit. This in comparison to what participants said during the talk-alouds shows that there is a positive sentiment towards the exhibition itself. The talk-alouds confirmed what the evaluators had already learned from visitors in the interviews.
The evaluators determined key issues amongst way finding and understanding the exhibit recognizing potential areas of opportunity.
Visitors mentioned they liked the wall colors multiple times, but some had trouble reading the text on the red walls.​ Some visitors stated they had a difficult time reading the text on the red wall. A visitor said, “Words on the yellow wall are easier to read, opposed to the clay color.”
Visitors had a difficult time searching for the label of a sculpture in the exhibit. The label
for The Quarryman by Constantin Meunier was placed on a nearby wall rather than on
the stand holding the sculpture. Multiple comments were made by visitors about the
label.
Recommendations
Implementing the recommendations to improve wayfinding through the exhibit’s intended route, provide easier readability for artwork labels, and reorganize didactics will help improve the overall experience for visitors. What was learned from the observations, interviews, and talk-alouds conducted by evaluators helped provide these recommendations to the Brooklyn Museum.
Recommendation 1
Determined from the findings, many visitors found the wayfinding throughout the
exhibition confusing. This was due to the exhibition being separated into two rooms.
One visitor during the talk-aloud stated, "I can't quite tell which way to go, but maybe
I'll try through here" regarding the doorway between the left room and right room.
The evaluators recommend including signage on the wall leading into the land/sea/air
exhibit. The sign will not be visible from the exhibit's main entrance. The signage will
only be visible from the other side of the exhibition walking from the religion section. An
example of the sign is shown in Figure 14. The sign would state that the exhibition
continues. It can also incorporate the wall colors used to help its readability.
Recommendation 2
While visitors walked through the exhibit, a common statement from visitors was confusion
about a missing label from The Quarryman by Constantin Meunier sculpture in the working
section. The label was not missing but displayed on the wall behind it.
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The evaluators recommend aligning the label conventions with the artwork. The text would be
moved on the podium to reflect the same pattern for sculptures having labels on the podium. This will help with confusion amongst visitors about label placements.
Recommendation 3
When entering the exhibit, the evaluators noted that many people would be split
between moving right and moving left. Speaking to the curator, the intention was for
visitors to begin the exhibition by turning left.
The evaluators recommend putting the exhibition introduction and collections didactics
of the exhibition on the left side. This will influence visitors that are naturally moving in a
clockwise direction to see and stop to read the text. Making this transition will make
the flow of the exhibition easier to follow.
An example of placement is shown in the image. The red dots dictate where the didactics exist and where the didactics would be
moved. The statue that sits on the left side of the entrance would be moved to the right
side. This also gives visitors more room to walk around the sculpture for viewing
purposes.
Conclusion
The evaluators determined methods best suited to answer this question. The evaluators wanted to understand visitor behavior and thought 'processes. Observations served as a good tool for noting visitors’ behavior. This was done to see where visitors stopped in the exhibit, how they moved through the space, and what they did in the space. The interview after the observations gave further insight as to who the visitors were and gave reason to why they behaved the way they did. The talk-alouds were incorporated to gain a better understanding of a visitor’s thought process while they are walking through the exhibit.
After analyzing the findings, the evaluators learned that the exhibition was well received by visitors. Many visitors gave good feedback to the evaluators about the artwork and gallery space. Although there were some comments from visitors that had negative sentiments, the evaluators concluded with three recommendations for the exhibition that can improve the visitor’s navigation through the exhibit.