The long term impact of design on the visitor experience: examination of a museum project after fourteen years of operation.

Tom Hewitt 2013

The Bond StoreWellington Museum City and Sea

11 May 2013

The Times of London published it’s list of the worlds top 50 museums

The Times list of the 50 best museums was compiled with nominations from:

Stephen Bayley, cultural critic; Mary Beard, classicist;

Rachel Campbell-Johnston, chief art critic, The Times;

Richard Holmes, biographer; Lisa Jardine, historian;

Dan Snow, historian; Erica Wagner, literary editor, The Times; Marina Warner, author

There are 16,000 museums in America, 4000 in the UK and 1400 in Australia and New Zealand

THE TIMES OF LONDON Top 50 World Museums  1. Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC.2. British Museum, London.3. Acropolis Museum, Athens.4. Sir John Soane's Museum, London.5. American Museum of Natural History, New York.6. Imperial War Museum.7. Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul.8. Palace of Versailles, France.9. Victoria & Albert Museum, London.10. National Museum of China, Beijing.11. Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford.12. Science Museum, London.13. Israel Museum, Jerusalem.14. Emperor Qin Shi Huang's Mausoleum Site Museum, Xian, China.15. Hunterian Museum, Royal College of Surgeons, London.16. Jewish Museum, Berlin.17. Canadian Museum of Civilisation, Ottawa.18. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.19. Neues Museum, Berlin.20. Centrale Montemartini Museum, Rome.21. Natural History Museum, London.22. Museum of the Moving Image, New York.23. Musée national du Moyen Age, Paris.24. Museum of Jurassic Technology, Los Angeles

 

25. Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, Mumbai.26. Die Neue Sammlung, Munich.27. Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.28. Pergamon Museum, Berlin.29. Museum of Natural History, Vienna.30. Egyptian Museum, Turin.31. Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, England.32. Vasa Museum, Stockholm.33. Bob Marley Museum, Kingston, Jamaica.34. Australian Museum, Sydney.35. Museo dell' Automobile, Turin.36. Salar Jung Museum, Hyderabad, India.37. Boerhaave Museum, Netherlands.38. Luxor Museum, Egypt.39. Zeugma Mosaic Museum, Turkey.40. Coleridge Cottage, Somerset, England.41. Museum of Wellington City & Sea, New Zealand.42. Robben Island Museum, South Africa.43. Museo Nacional de Antropologia, Mexico City.44. Viking Ship Museum, Oslo.45. Grande Galerie d'evolution, Paris.46. Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, New York.47. National Museum of Ireland.48. River and Rowing Museum, Henley on Thames.49. Ghibli Museum, Tokyo.50. Country Music Hall of Fame, Nashville.

The review“New Zealand's capital city has a tiny population (smaller than Bristol)

but a great heritage, as this museum proves.

Set on three floors, it takes in social and cultural history from

early Maori and European settlement through to its maritime past,

including a memorial to the 1968 Wahine ferry disaster.” 

Don't miss

A Millennium Ago, a show about Maori creation legends

The French Second Empire style building 1892

The 1996 Wellington Maritime Museum

The Main Objectives

To develop a museum which had significant appeal to both the local community and

to visitors to Wellington.

To produce a museum which, although vastly different to Te Papa,

less than 500 metres away,

would compete on visitor appreciation terms.

To maintain the integrity of the heritage building and

create an iconic historic attraction for the City of Wellington.

Te Papa was being developed at the same time, just 500 metres away

Testing the dark-ride approach

Testing the maritime museum approach

Early planning concepts

If ignored, the building was likely to either be blown over,

collapse in an earthquake

or gradually sink in the harbour

The primary themes

Level 3 Wellington 100 years ago and 1000 years ago

Level 2 Maritime History, the Harbour Board Room and the Wahine Disaster

Level 1 – EntryReception, Retail, The Bond Store, Temporary Exhibitions

ORIENTATION

“when visitors know where they are in a building,

they can better understand their

location within the narrative presented to them”

(Wineman and Peponis 2009)

The concept for the central staircase and atrium

The external access tower

The visitor’s experience must be seen as a whole or gestalt

(Falk & Dierking 1992)

“exhibition as the stage”(Schittich 2009)

“Each exhibition is a production, like a theatrical production,

and like a play, it is a specific work of culture

with game rules of its own”

(Pearce 1992)

“Museums as a form of theatre”

(Yellis 2010)

“the most interesting label ever written might as well not exist if it is not read by the visitor”

(Bitgood 1994 and 2011).

“Museums are not effective or efficient communicators of large amounts of information.

People do not read very well standing up….”

(Skramstad 1999) .

“A Museum is not a book”

(Sweeny 1976)

The visitor experienceDiagram produced by the Museum in 2008

The vertical film feature

Level oneThe recreated Bond Store

Level OneThe temporary exhibition space

Level twoWellington’s Maritime history

Level twoThe 1925 Board Room

Level twoWellington’s Maritime history

Level twoThe Wahine Story

Maritime Interactive Zone

Level threeWellington 100 years ago

Level threeWellington 100 years ago

Level threeA millennium ago – Creation legends

The storeroom set and ‘stage’

“there was much lower support for the creations legends and

this was potentially influencing the Board’s decision

not to proceed with this feature when money became an issue.

I recall you and Michael having to work hard to convince the Board that we

needed a feature on each floor to draw visitors to each part of museum”.

(Gilberthorpe 30 October 2012)

Level threeA MILLENNIUM AGO

“Must be seen to be disbelieved”Wellington Press December 1999

14 years on

ProDesign Magazine 2001

From the book What is Exhibition Design by Lorenc, Skolnick and Berger 2007

“I should tell you that in the course of my 'world tour' I visited almost

300 museums, and the Museum of Wellington is in my top three:

I thought it delivered a fantastic experience, with wonderful

and extensive content engagingly presented…..”

(Loic Tallon, author of Digital Technologies and the museum experience,at the American Museums Association Conference 2008)

Museum of Wellington City and Sea

Housed in the former Bond Store on Queens Wharf is the recently revitalized Museum of Wellington City and Sea.

Being in such close proximity to Te Papa, you might think its attempt to compete and woo visitors was an exercise in futility, but this museum is actually superb and, in its own way,

competes favourably with Te Papa. The multi-levelled design of the interior is modern yet rustic, maintaining the feel of its former function and the modern dose of sensual bombardment

it now houses is very powerful.

As the name suggests the emphasis is on local history, with a particular maritime bent. Of note is the Wahine Disaster Gallery and the state-of-the-art holographic display on Maori legends.

The Wahine was a passenger ferry that came to grief at the harbour entrance in 1968 with the loss of 51 lives. Original film footage set to a highly dramatic score

documents the chilling series of events.

The 3D and holographic mix of the Maori legend display is simply stunning and is a fantastic example of how technology has injected new life into museums as a whole. Recommended.

Darroch Donald

Footprint, a guide to New Zealand 2008 

Internet reviews – 15 May 2013

Tripadvisor –’the world’s Largest Travel Site’

160 reviews

89 Excellent60 very good

9 average2 poor

39 specifically mention the Wahine exhibit

27 specifically mention the Maori Creation Legends

23 compare the museum favourably with Te Papa

Is technology a prime reason for the museum’s success?

“This is a great place to see the history of Wellington lade out (sic) in a modern museum with the latest technology and its FREE”

Visited April 2013

Technology and holograms or simply a Pepper’s ghost

“When people think about the future they often fixate on technology”

Exhibit Design for the Future, George Jacob 2011

What went right?

Honouring the history of the building ?

The designer(s) as auteur ?

The location – credibility ?

Circulation through the spaces ?

The unique high impact features ?

Coalescence of entertainment and education ?

The Bond StoreWellington Museum City and Sea development team

Principal designers, creative directors and project managersMichael Pender and Tom Hewitt

WMT executive officer and project coordinator - John GilberthorpeResearcher, interpretive writer and editor - Dr Diana Morrow

Image researcher - Cathy MarrMaritime themes curator and researcher - Ken Scadden

Assistant curator - Stephanie GibsonDisplay designer - Fiona Young

Graphic Designer - Ian Paul HewittArt director - Brian Hocking

Wahine film director - Gaylene PrestonTall screen film direction and production - Mike Perry and Steve Raines

Creation Legend, and Board Room audio production – Mike and Brian Shirley

Without the support, enthusiasm and endorsement of the Wellington Museums Trust chaired by firstly Michael Hirschfield and then Sue Driver, and all the Trust members who shared the designers

excitement in the project, the end product could have been much more predictable.

What the studies show

52% of visitors are from overseas

62% of visitors went for Wellington’s social History.

Highest on the list of enjoyed exhibits were the Wahine gallery and

the Millennium Ago gallery.

65% of visitors stay for more than 1 hour.

More than 35% have had the museum recommended to them.

How accurate and influential are on line reviews?

Cooperative Research Centre

USER GENERATED CONTENT

The European Travel Commission found that travellers prefer websites like tripadvisor, which allow for the entering of ratings (up to 5 Stars) rather than

general blog comments, and many believe that state tourism websites should incorporate UGC features.

Many users are astute enough to see through manipulated or embellished postings and form negative opinions about

organisations that tamper with UGC.Users prefer doing it for themselves.

Lonely Planet, Tipadvisor and Explore Australia were highly

rated as trustworthy. In general people did not trust social networking sites.

“Word of Mouth was found to be seven times more effective than newspapers and magazines ……..

and twice as effective as radio advertising.”

(Falk and Dierking 1997)