The idea of writing my thesis came from my summer internship in 2009 at the Bay Area Discovery Museum (BADM), a children’s museum in Sausalito, California. My internship’s main objective was to help the Director of Exhibits create a better functioning and experiential front entrance for the museum visitors. The entryway design was a challenge because the architects who originally designed the building did not have visiting families in mind. Therefore the entryway was problematic for visitors. During my evaluations of the entryway, I discovered odd behaviors from the visitors. The rock band Led Zeppelin said it best with the title of their 1978 album “In through the out door” which is exactly what was happening at the museum; visitors were entering through the “out” door and exiting through the “in” door. The result was a chaotic mess of adults, children, strollers, and diaper bags.
I did a case study of the entryway at the Bay Area Discovery Museum, and my journey of creating a functional public entryway. Refining this topic involved much thought and study. I first was going to write about museum entryways in inherited buildings – that is, buildings that were never intended to function as public museums and their design challenges. The more I talked with museum professionals about that idea, the more they encouraged me to expand the topic to incorporate all museums, because even museums that were built to function as such still have challenging entrances. Then the topic evolved to evaluating two other museums in the San Francisco Bay Area with the same evaluation and planning process that I helped to create at The Bay Area Discovery Museum. However, before I could import BADM’s process to other institutions, it made more sense to finish the evaluation process by completing a summative evaluation. This thesis is a culmination of almost a year’s worth of work exploring how to create an efficient and experiential entryway, based on my studies tracking these issues with museum professionals at the Bay Area Discovery Museum. My thesis highlights those experiences, starting with the methodology which uses a evaluating and planning process.
The methodology chapter explores the process of gathering the data for the case study at the Bay Area Discovery Museum that started in the summer of 2009. The goal was to identify the problems in the entryway; it consisted of two processes: (1) timing and tracking, and (2) behavioral evaluations. The first stage was implemented during the summer of 2009. During this period, I conducted timing and tracking evaluations on 135 groups of visitors. On August 19, 2009, timing and tracking evaluations of 25 groups of visitors were completed to determine the amount of time visitors spent at the admission desk, as well as their movements. In addition, 110 of the visiting groups’ movements were tracked in the entryway on August 5th, 14th, and 26th. Changes to the entryway were then made. In 2010, I then re-created the Cutts Planning Process and incorporated a summative evaluation of the improvements made in the entry pavilion performed in the winter of 2010. On Monday, February 15, 2010, I conducted a timing and tracking evaluation with 25 groups of visitors during the Chinese New Year holiday weekend. In addition, 50 behavioral evaluations were performed on visiting groups during the weeks of February 23rd and March 4th.
To introduce the results of my investigation, the next chapter of the thesis presents a literature review. It explores sources detailing design and ergonomic factors that emphasizes a clear focus on efficiency, and on how museum entryways invariably function as emotional and intellectual transition zones for visitors. Designing lobbies to provide a positive transition into the museum by engaging the visitor's senses is a worthy goal; unfortunately, rigorous studies on lobby visitor experiences in museums do not exist. Practical case studies, store design, and customer behavior studies provide cues from the retail world as to how to fulfill this goal, which aid in filling this gap. Retail stores aim to draw people into their spaces and employ design indicators to control visitor’s movement thereby utilizing space efficiently. The literature review shows that museums can employ similar design tactics in their entryways.
The next section of the thesis presents a report of the findings from the data collected from the planning processes and evaluations. The conclusions section analyses the difference between the formative and summative evaluation; and on what did and did not improve in the entryway at The Bay Area Discovery Museum.
To conclude my report, based on my experience and on what I found in the literature, I present my recommendations section which offers suggestions to other museums with design challenges in their front entry. These suggestions will help other institutions improve visitors experience through the entry space allowing them to travel with ease. Museums need to keep in mind how people behave in order to create a great design as well as an immersive experience. Museums need to strategically place each graphic sign throughout the entryway, giving the visitors the best opportunity to navigate where they are going. Pathways and seating areas need to be designated in the entryway allowing visitors to know where to go. It is important to be aware that people visit museums in groups, and that museums are social gathering places. Therefore the entry space needs to accommodate a social setting to help museums in their planning I have designed a flowchart which concludes this paper. The first 15 minutes have been shown to be vital to capture the focus of the visitor, because according to researcher John Falk that is the amount of time visitors are prepared to learn (Falk, 2009, p.25). A museum’s entry space needs to allow visitors every opportunity to make the most out of their visit.
One way to think of the entryway is to describe a museum like a sandwich, the meat is the exhibitions and the entryway is the bread that holds the museum together. It is the first place for museums to engage the visitor as well as the last experience visitors get of the museum. Therefore, it should be the best part of the museum. A museum’s entryway presents the first experience visitors have in the museum, and therefore provides an opportunity to create a spectacular opening for the rest of the museum experience.
