Visitor Studies Association Conference
July 21st-23rd, Kansas City, MO
Tuesday, July 21st
Concurrent Session 1 - 11:00 am - 12:00 pm
OER:NPS cross-validation: What does a 6 mean?
Tom Beatman, Research Unicorn
This presentation explores varied instantiations and mappings between different customer satisfaction scales, particularly Overall Experience Rating and Net Promoter Score. We examine the presentation and interpretation of these scales and their data to support informed criticisms and takeaways in the ongoing use of NPS as a metric.
Vibe Check: Experience Design for Visitor Studies
Victoria Threadgill, Space Center Houston
Megan Harwell, Space Center Houston
Donnelley Hayde, COSI's Center for Research and Evaluation
This session will explore the importance of considering the guest experience context when designing evaluation methods. We will explore the importance of understanding who your audience is, what design choices might best suit the information you are trying to gather, and questions to consider when designing interfaces for data collection.
Beyond Single Studies: Leveraging Cross-Exhibition Analysis
Paula Lynn, National Gallery of Art
Carolyn Bevans, National Gallery of Art
What insights only emerge when exhibition studies are viewed together? This session frames retrospective synthesis as a tool, sharing how cross-exhibition analysis surfaces recurring patterns in visitor experience and helps evaluators translate findings into shared insight, and advocate for visitor-centered design.
Customization, but make it consistent: Department-wide evaluation of Detroit Zoo’s educational programming
Zahraa Aljebori, Detroit Zoo
Laura Weiss, COSI's Center for Research and Evaluation
How do you evaluate over 50 programs in a way that is manageable and provides useful data? Learn how the Detroit Zoo’s Education team adapted the Informal STEM Education Evaluation (ISEE) system to evaluate ALL their educational programming, and explore ideas for how to conduct department-wide evaluation at your organization.
Concurrent Session 2 - 1:15 pm - 2:15 pm
Archive Speed-Dating: Access Under Pressure
Inmagela R. Abreu, University of Illinois Chicago
This interactive Projects & Methods session uses “Archive Speed-Dating” to stress-test access systems across federal, private, and community archives. Participants attempt rapid access to political posters, documenting the friction, confusion, and barriers encountered. Frustration becomes data, revealing how institutional norms, conservation practices, and politics shape real visitor access.
Data as a Bridge: Integrating Internal Processes to Better Serve Priority Audiences
Mac Cannady, Lawrence Hall of Science
Seth Harthun, Lawrence Hall of Science
Claudia Bustos, Lawrence Hall of Science
Kelly Grindstaff, Lawrence Hall of Science
Are you data-rich but insight-poor? Explore field-tested strategies for breaking down departmental silos to better serve priority communities. We’ll share our approach for integrating data sources, empowering staff, and centering equity in decision-making. Join this facilitated discussion to gain practical approaches for operationalizing data across your institution.
Exit Surveys – Tips and Tricks for Success
Elisa Israel, St. Louis Science Center
Beth Katz, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
Christopher Landeros, California Science Center
Rachel Lindsey, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
Exit surveys provide a wealth of information about visitors, but collecting sufficient data can be difficult. Presenters will share challenges they face implementing an ongoing exit survey and how they have addressed them. Topics will include: tips for recruiting, training, and motivating data collectors, and approaches for managing ongoing surveys.
Efficiency Revolution: Leveraging AI to Automate, Standardize, and Elevate Visitor Evaluation
Xingyu Zhao, Nanjing University
This session demonstrates how the Nanjing University Research Group utilizes AI to automate data pipelines—from collection to reporting. Through case studies at major Chinese museums, we show how AI standardizes large-scale data entry and analysis, elevating the evaluator's role from data processor to strategic institutional advisor.
Concurrent Session 3 - 2:45 pm - 3:45 pm
Ripple Effect Mapping: The program ended… and then what happened?
Michelle Lentzner, J. Sickler Consulting
Imagine an experience as a pebble dropped into a pond: how does it ripple out into the lives and communities of those involved? Ripple Effect Mapping captures wide-ranging outcomes, such as changed attitudes, actions, or knowledge in the weeks, months, or even years after an experience occurred.
Uplifting Children and Families' Voices Through Evaluation Choices
Syd Overtoom, Children’s Museum of Indianapolis
Lok-Wah Li, Boston Children’s Museum
Courtney Ball, Discovery Place
Samantha Tonumaipea, Thanksgiving Point Institute
Join evaluation professionals in a dialogue about how children and families can feel heard through intentional evaluation. The conversation focuses on how these institutions prioritize those voices through evaluation choices that can be applied elsewhere. Audience members are encouraged to reflect on how they perceive conducting evaluation studies with children.
Scalable, Visitor-Centered, and Time-Saving Lessons Learned From Retail And Ethology
Victoria Eudy, Missouri Historical Society
Yue Ma, Missouri Historical Society
This session introduces two applied evaluation methods for rapid, large-scale data collection. It examines scan observation in a major metropolitan museum and explores the use of marketing- and retail-based audience segmentation tools to better understand visitors and non-visitors, with practical applications for exhibition development and future use in visitor studies.
Bang! Clang! Waaaahhhh! Exploring how sound impacts visitors’ STEM
Laura Weiss, COSI's Center for Research and Evaluation
Justin Meyer, COSI's Center for Research and Evaluation
Donnelley Hayde, COSI's Center for Research and Evaluation
Joe E. Heimlich, Retired from COSI's Center for Research and Evaluation
How do soundscapes affect visitors in informal STEM learning (ISL) settings? Sound Travels has been conducting research to help answer this question. We will introduce you to the project, including technical challenges we faced, the data collection methods we developed to address them, and some promising findings for ISL practitioners.
Wednesday, July 22nd
Concurrent Session 4 - 1:45 pm - 3:45 pm (Mini-workshops)
Exploring Photovoice: Giving Students a Voice in Conservation
Michelle Mileham, Oregon Zoo
Brianna McCoy, Oregon Zoo
Join us for a hands-on exploration of how the Oregon Zoo uses photovoice in its School Partnership Program. We will share the history of photovoice, our process of developing a protocol, and how we collect and analyze data with students. Attendees will actively participate in photovoice during this workshop!
From Findings to Insights: Communicating Visitor Data through Storytelling
Carolyn Bevans, National Gallery of Art
Bryn Pernot, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
Data doesn’t speak for itself—stories do. This mini‑workshop gives visitor studies professionals practical tools for transforming research findings into insights. Through real‑world examples and guided exercises, participants will learn techniques for communicating context, meaning, and action using field‑tested, applied approaches.
Pain-free and Playful: Disguising evaluation as part of the guest experience
Nette Pletcher, Beez Kneez Creative
Jen Gauble, St. Louis Zoo
Erin Tate, St. Louis Zoo
Amy Niedbalski, St. Louis Zoo
Tired of trying to coerce visitors into participating in your research? Looking for evaluation techniques that visitors will line up for? Join this mini-workshop to explore effective methods for collecting data from real-life visitors, as they navigate through your exhibits, engage in your programs, or participate in your special events.
Concurrent Session 5 - 4:15 pm - 5:15 pm
Strengthening Exhibitions and Experiences through Community Collaboration
Eleanor Hill, Denver Museum of Nature & Science
Alyssa Carr, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Julie Weber, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Roslyn Esperon, The Walters Art Museum
Collaborating with community increases audience engagement and reduces costly mistakes, strengthening our projects. While such collaboration can feel daunting, expensive, and time consuming, community-based research offers valuable benefits! Presenters will share examples of how they have successfully utilized museum driven community collaboration, tips and tricks, and lessons learned.
Exploring the New IMLS National Museum Survey Data: Key Findings and How to Use the Data Portal
Helen Wechsler, Institute of Museum and Library Services
Learn about the data portal developed to release results from IMLS’ first ever National Museum Survey (NMS). Discussion will include the process used to develop the portal as a user-friendly way for museum professionals to access and use their data, along with an interactive showcase of the portal’s capabilities.
Beyond Double-Barreled Questions: Using the MEASURE Approach to Develop Surveys with Rigor (30 minutes, 4:15-4:45)
Kari Ross Nelson, Thanksgiving Point Institute
Samantha Tonumaipea, Thanksgiving Point Institute
This session presents a systematic framework for rigorous survey development that goes beyond writing sound individual survey items and expands visitor studies practitioners' skillsets. The method is demonstrated through a multi-museum study of Museums for All, providing a transferable model applicable to diverse research and evaluation contexts requiring robust instrumentation.
The Easy Button: Automating Survey Infrastructure for Field-Wide Impact (30 minutes, 4:45-5:15)
Mac Cannady, Lawrence Hall of Science
Melissa Collins, Lawrence Hall of Science
This session describes the technical architecture of a survey infrastructure tool and how it facilitates survey administration and comparative analysis. Session attendees will learn how it works and offer feedback on the selection of constructs and the utility of our reporting templates to enhance relevance to the field.
Wednesday, July 22nd
Concurrent Session 6 - 10:45 am - 11:45 am
Turning the Tables: Co-Designing an Evaluation Playbook Through Design-Based Research
Kari Ross Nelson, Utah State University
This “two-fer” session explores design-based research (DBR) applied to evaluation practice itself. We'll examine how VSA community members co-designed a playbook for applying evaluation theory in museums. Attendees will learn about DBR methodology and explore the resulting tool—bridging the persistent gap between academic theory and practitioner application.
From Data to Dialogue: Evaluation of Multilingual Exhibitions
Alyssa Carr, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Rafaela Brosnan, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Maia Werner-Avidon, MWA Insights
Bryn Pernot, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
Multilingual interpretation expands access, deepens visitor understanding, and signals institutional welcome and trust. Building on a 2016 VSA presentation about the value of multilingualism beyond translation, this session explores how three institutions use evaluation, planning, and community-informed feedback to meet the needs of multilingual audiences.
Process Evaluation: Optimizing Projects, Programs, and Partnerships (30 minutes, 10:45-11:15)
Rita Deedrick, Deedrick Consulting
Amanda Krantz, Kera Collective
Process evaluation is not about WHAT a project or program is accomplishing; rather process evaluation is about HOW work is getting done, improving processes in service to projects, programs, and partnerships. The session’s goal is to bring this underused evaluation approach to light and inspire and inform its use.
Using Cognitive Interviews to Understand Belonging Across Adult Visitors (30 minutes, 11:15-11:45)
Diana Acosta, Griffin Museum of Science and Industry
This session reports findings from a study that asked adult visitors of a science museum to share what belonging means to them. We also present visitors’ real-life examples of belonging in the museum to uncover what it truly means to belong for guests of different racial, ethnic, and gender identities.
Hills to Die On: The Visitor Studies Showdown
Michelle Lentzner, J. Sickler Consulting
Marie Edland, Barnes Foundation
How strongly do you feel about the methods and practices you use to do your work? Would you “die on that hill”? This session will feature a host of discussions surrounding contentious topics and practices within the visitor studies field. We will explore discrepancies and commonalities among participants’ values, contexts, methods, and practices.
Thursday, July 23rd
Concurrent Session 7 - 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm
Evaluation Emergencies! Responding to Last-Minute Evaluation Requests
Beth Katz, Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County
Megan Harrell, Space Center Houston
Internal Evaluators are often departments with just a few staff members - sometimes only one. Last-minute requests from colleagues can be stressful, and sometimes impossible. In this session, presenters will share strategies and tools for responding to these “evaluation emergencies,” and facilitate discussion around addressing and preventing future emergencies.
Surprise as a Tool for Attention and Learning
Vishakha Ramakrishnan, Peridot Projects
Paula Lynn, National Gallery of Art
This session explores how moments of surprise can disrupt visitor museum fatigue to create opportunities for deep engagement. Pairing evaluation results from the National Gallery’s Back and Forth installation with research on the psychology of surprise, we demonstrate how visual novelty can be a powerful learning tool in visitor engagement.
Let’s try something different: Explore playful approaches in Museum evaluations
Lok-Wah Li, Boston Children’s Museum
Kaylan Petrie, New England Aquarium
Julia Wareham, Museum of Science, Boston
Emmett Fung, Museum of Science, Boston
Museums and aquariums are interactive places for fun and learning. How can evaluators match their methods with the playful mood of the audience and settings? Internal evaluators from a children’s museum, an aquarium, and a science museum will share thoughts and methods in playfully engaging visitors during data collection.
Co-design as a research method: Accessible strategies with neurodiverse audiences
Suzy Letourneau, New York Hall of Science
Co-design is an innovative strategy for improving museum practice and supporting accessibility for audiences with disabilities. This presentation will share lessons learned about how to use co-design to address research questions, using a multi-site project that brought together museum staff, autistic youth, and researchers to redesign museum activities.