Understanding Visitor Experiences at the Pauline Gandel Children’s Gallery

The Pauline Gandel Children’s Gallery is a new exhibition at Melbourne Museum designed for the uniquely young age range of 0-5 year olds. The goal of this project was to help the museum understand the gallery’s current use and educational value. The team conducted a tracking and timing study, interviews, and observational studies to evaluate the popularity, holding power, and educational value of exhibits. Results showed that designers were successful in providing the unique age range with engaging learning experiences.

The Pauline Gandel Children’s Gallery is a newly renovated children’s exhibition opened in December 2016 at the Melbourne Museum in Melbourne, Australia. In response to an abundance of new research that emphasizes the importance of stimulating the minds of children at a young age, the Melbourne Museum designed the gallery for a uniquely young age range of children from 0 to 5 years old. After the gallery had been open for several months, the museum sought to confirm that the exhibits were successful in providing this young age range with a meaningful and engaging learning experience. To help the Melbourne Museum gain a better understanding of the use and educational value of the Pauline Gandel Children’s Gallery, the team completed the following four objectives:

• Achieved a full understanding of the goals of the exhibits in order to test and finalize the procedures and tools required to gather the desired data
• Conducted a tracking and timing study to evaluate exhibit use, popularity, and holding power
• Conducted interviews to evaluate learning outcomes and visitor engagement
• Conducted observational studies in selected areas by observing and recording behaviors for specific age groups to identify commonly observed behaviors and evaluate educational value

To evaluate the usage of exhibits and areas, the team analyzed compilations of recorded pathways. The most notable findings were found from the age-specific compilations, shown below in Figure 1, where the density of pathways in specific areas shows the areas that were favored by each age group. The older age groups favored the Net and Burrow Area (G) and the Dinosaur Dig Area (J), while the younger age groups favored the Shapes Wall Area (D) and the Mirror Room (E). The compilations also indicate that all age groups equally favored the Camouflage Disco Area (H).

Results of the holding power analysis can be seen in Figure 3, in which the blue bars represent the difference between an exhibit’s holding power and the gallery average holding power. Exhibits with the highest holding powers were story-based exhibits such as the Books and the Tiddalick Story. These exhibits held children’s attention for the longest amount of time because children became invested in the stories. The exhibits with lower holding powers were often simple features located in major pathways that children would quickly move through but not spend a significant amount of time interacting with, including the Dino Footsteps, Train Tunnel, and Lava Dots. For such exhibits, a low holding power does not necessarily indicate poor performance; in contrast, it shows that they are being used as intended, as they were designed to be used for short durations.

Results of the caregiver interaction analysis can be seen in Figure 4 below. It was noted that caregiver interaction decreases with age, as babies require more help from their caregivers while older children enjoy playing independently. The exhibits with the highest caregiver interactions contain activities that appeal to both caregivers and children, including exhibits where caregivers can teach or play with their children. The exhibits with the lowest caregiver interactions are either non-interactive exhibits or exhibits containing features that caregivers were less likely to interact with, including water and sand pits.