Whole-Museum Stay-Time Study

This study, completed by Serrell and Associates in June of 2012, was the first phase in an overall visitor research program at the Natural History Museum of Utah completed. NHMU opened its new facility in November 2011, a spectacular integration of a LEED- certified building anchoring the museum’s significant collections and research programs, and a series of exhibitions designed to illuminate the natural world through the lens of Utah’s human and natural history. The Museum has a total of 51,270 square feet of public interpretive space. With the purpose of setting “clear eyes to the future,” NHMU is putting “critical eyes on the present” by carrying out a set of evaluations to help them assess the degree to which the Museum is meeting visitor needs and having the desired impacts—contributing to science engagement and learning in the community, and increasing the likelihood that visitors will return and develop long-term relationships with the institution. As an important step in this process, researchers need to understand the experiences visitors have during their whole visit to the Museum. The present study isolated the factor of time—how long on average do visitors spend on a visit to the Museum? This study provides relevant data for planning follow-up visitor research. The goals of the stay-time study were to: 1) Find out how long visitors are staying on average at the Museum on a single visit 2) Explore whether stay-time was influenced by... a. Day of week b. Number in group c. Group make-up ( Adult Only Groups, Adults with Kids) d. 1st visit or repeat visit e. Resident or tourist f. Membership status g. Where in the Museum they began their visit The study took place in April 2012. Times of entry and exit were recorded for a total sample of 418 visitors. Demographic and preference data were also collected for each sample.

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