Bainbridge Museum of Art

Background

Bainbridge Island Museum of Art (BIMA) shows contemporary art from the Puget Sound region. Admission is free, consequently the museum needs to grow it’s membership and donor base for long-term sustainability.

With no process in place for capturing contact information, the museum had no way to make a strong ask for membership and donations. They needed a check-in process that would capture data from their 75,000 annual visitors, while maintaining positive sentiment among visitors, docents, and internal stakeholders.

Role

Collaborated with one partner. Competitor analysis, contextual inquiry, prototyping, CSS, user testing, UX design, visual design.

Tools

Pen & Paper, WordPress, Photoshop, InDesign, Dreamweaver

Goal:
Collect visitor contact information while maintaining positive sentiment among visitors, docents, and internal stakeholders.

Competitor Analysis

We visited several area museums, which revealed a wide variety of methods for collecting visitor contact information — required paper sign-in forms, optional paper or digital forms, and no data-collection process.

Contextual Inquiry

We interviewed BIMA visitors on location, to learn how they would feel about signing in with their contact information when visiting the museum. Participants’ ages ranged from mid-twenties to mid-sixties.

Contextual Inquiry Findings
Participants	Saw Membership Info	Saw Donation Info	Visited Front Desk	Sign-In OK	Mailing Address Not OK	Local
5	2	2	3	4	1	3

Guiding Principles:
Simple, easy and quick, for visitors and staff.

Prototyping

We designed a digital contact form for testing two scenarios — required sign-in and optional sign-up for email communications. After testing out several options with peers, we learned that the simplest form for collecting name, email and zip code was best in order to keep the experience short, and to align with our guiding principles.

Simplified contact form sketch – name, email, and zip

First contact form prototype

Revised contact form prototype and thank you message

Testing

Tests were conducted at the museum’s front desk. First, we tested a required sign-in process, where the docent asked visitors to take a moment to sign in, using our digital form at the front desk. Second, we tested an optional sign-up process where the docent asked visitors if they would like to sign up to receive occasional emails about upcoming exhibits and events.

We learned that visitors were willing to sign in whether it was required or optional, but the simpler language of the required sign-in process was much easier for the docent to communicate. Therefore the required sign-in process was the winner.

Required Sign-In Findings
Participants	Signed In	Name	Email	Zip	Age 60+	Age 30-40	First Visit	Local
11	11	11	11	10	4	7	8	4

Option Sign-Up Findings
Participants	Signed In	Name	Email	Zip	Age 60+	Age 30-40	First Visit	Local
16	15	15	13	13	10	6	14	10

Focused Front Desk

The front desk had become quite cluttered with visually inconsistent flyers for upcoming events. To focus visitors on the sign-in process, the amount of information was streamlined to include only the “no food” sign, membership brochure, upcoming events brochure, map of current exhibits, and tablets with the digital sign-in form.

Before: Front desk was cluttered with flyers and signs

Sketch of less cluttered front desk

Recommended front desk arrangement to focus attention on sign-in and membership

Supporting Signage

BIMA has several entrances. We designed indoor and outdoor signage to direct visitors to the main entrance and front desk before entering the museum area, to aid in the sign-in process. Shown below is the design development of the sign directing traffic from the bistro and auditorium to the front lobby area.

Sign sketch directing bistro and auditorium visitors to sign-in

Another sign option for greater visibility

Mock-up showing recommended sign

Inspiring Membership and Donations

BIMA docents are on hand to engage visitors with current exhibits, tell the museum’s story, and suggest membership. With the large volume of visitors, it can be challenging to impart all of this to each visitor. To help tell the BIMA story and inspire membership and donations, we recommend developing a short video to give visitors insight into the founding philosophy, highlight the museum’s many programs, and inspire membership and donations.

Members enjoy 10% off in the bistro. Adding a join card to the bill folder and a donation option to the digital payment process would make joining and donating easy and quick for the bistro customer. Likewise, a digital donation option near cash donation boxes would increase convenience. More direct messaging on the donation box signage would clarify the need for donations.

We recommend developing a short video of the BIMA story to support and build on docents’ efforts toward asking visitors to join or donate

Left: Current donation box; Right: Recommended more direct donation ask and digital donation option

Bistro Membership Join Card and Donation Option with Payment

Recommended: Add a membership join card to the bistro bill folder, and donation option to bistro payment

Follow-Up Communication

After collecting visitor contact information, follow-up communication is essential to growing the membership and donor base. We recommend sending visitors an email very soon after their visit with a “we hope you enjoyed your visit” message, highlighting a couple of upcoming events, and a reminder that the museum is 100% member and donor supported. For out-of-town visitors the upcoming events message should be replaced with links to stories online about exhibiting artists. Monthly e-newsletters should be sent to continue the messaging and include a call-to-action for membership and donations.