Introducing Walk-Alongs in Visitor Studies: A Mobile Method Approach to Studying User Experience

Abstract

This article introduces the walk-along method as a potential approach to study visitor interactions and experiences in situ. Prompted by the methodological challenges involved in gaining insight into the individual, subjective visitor experience, this article explores the potentials and pros and cons of the mobile, walk-along method. The mobile walk-along method is an open-ended qualitative approach to capturing visitors’ immediate experiences, interpretations, and emotions in the instant of experiencing. This article points to the method’s relevance in visitor studies by drawing on empirical and methodological insights from a visitor study at a science center exhibition about movement and health at the Experimentarium near Copenhagen, Denmark. Based on 34 group walk-alongs (108 visitors), the findings show that the walk-along method can provide an understanding of visitor experience related to visitors’ spatial practice, personal biographies and the social architecture between visitors.

Acknowledgement

We would like to thank the Experimentarium (Copenhagen) for its interest in and collaboration on this research project, including its granting ability to carry out visitor studies in the Pulse exhibition. A special thank you is due to Mette Stentoft Therkildsen, Bent Johan Poulsen, Lene Kofod and Poul Kattler for providing background knowledge and fruitful discussions. Also, a thank you is due to Louise Bak Søndergaard and Kasper Tikaer Olesen, research assistants at Aalborg University, for their help with data collection.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mette Skov

Mette Skov is Associate Professor at the Department of Communication & Psychology, Aalborg University (Denmark). She holds a MA and PhD degree from the Royal School of Library and Information Science (Denmark). Her research involves user studies in experience and interaction design. She has also studied online museum visitors’ information seeking practice. Address correspondence to: Mette Skov, Department of Communication and Psychology, Aalborg University, Rendsburggade 14, 9000 Aalborg, Denmark. E-mail: [email protected]

Marianne Lykke

Marianne Lykke is Professor at the Department of Communication & Psychology, Aalborg University (Denmark). Her fields of research are information architecture, user experience design and user-centered design methodologies. In the museum field, she is working with exhibit labels and the walk-along method to study user experiences. She holds a MA degree from the Royal School of Library and Information Science (Denmark) and a PhD degree in User-Centered Knowledge Organization from Åbo Academy (Finland).

Christian Jantzen

Christian Jantzen is professor at the Department of Communication & Psychology, Aalborg University (Denmark). His fields of research are media studies, consumer culture and experience design. He has contributed to developing the concept of ‘experience’ and to viewing experience design as an esthetic practice. He holds a MA degree from the University of Utrecht (the Netherlands) and a PhD degree in Cultural Analysis from Aalborg University (Denmark).