Visitor journey mapping at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza: bringing cross-departmental collaboration to build a holistic and integrated visitor experience

ABSTRACT

Museums are increasingly adopting a visitor-centered approach in their practice, and implementing methods to evaluate the visitor experience. This article presents the case study of the application of visitor journey mapping at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza (Spain). After a review of their strategic documents and available visitor research, a workshop was conducted with the participation of staff members from various departments to develop visitor journey maps for four audience segments. This article demonstrates the effectiveness of this tool when it comes to identifying the potential areas for improvement, specifically for the physical context of the visitor experience. Most importantly, it highlights the need for museums to break the traditional silos and work across departments in order to define and implement a holistic and integrated visitor experience. The discussion points out practical implications for museums to undertake visitor research on their ongoing practice and move towards a collaborative working culture.

KEYWORDS:

• Journey mapping
• visitor studies
• visitor experience
• evaluation
• organizational change
• museums

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Elena Villaespesa works as an Assistant Professor at the School of Information, Pratt Institute. Her research and teaching areas of interest include digital strategy, data analytics and user experience research and evaluation applied to the museum sector. She completed a Ph.D. in Digital Heritage at the School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester (United Kingdom) and an MA in Arts Management, Universidad Carlos III, Madrid (Spain). She has previously worked as a Digital Analyst at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Tate. In these roles, she was in charge of establishing and overseeing an analytics program to monitor and assess museum digital channels, platforms, and programs.

Ana Álvarez works as the Web Manager at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid since 2011, and among her functions, she is also involved with digital curation and digital transformation projects. She has a BA in Medieval History (Complutense University, Spain) and a Master’s Degree in Museum Studies (University of Leicester, United Kingdom). Ana developed her professional career in the culture sector within the areas of digitization, websites and information management. She has worked as a consultant undertaking ICT projects related to cultural heritage, and digital educational content projects, working first in the private sector, and later on for the public company Red.es (Spanish Ministry of Industry). Currently, she also serves as the Spanish Representative at the European NRG (National Representatives Group) on Digitisation in Culture, which was the seed for several European Commission’s Digital Culture projects such as Europeana.

ORCID

Elena Villaespesa http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7790-5495