The research carried out in 2008 by Martin Bazley, Nicky Boyd and Peter Pavement was featured in the SCA Guide to Researching Audiences Case Studies from which the following is taken:
Main findings of London Hub research (2008)
Composition of the audience
8.4.1 Compared to the national average for museum and museum website visitors two age
groups are under-represented in the London Hub museums’ audiences:
■■ 0-18 years;
■■ 65+ years (not visitors to the Geffrye Museum).
8.4.2 Online audiences were strikingly similar to the physical audience eg in terms of residential location.
8.4.3 Approximately 70% of online respondents claimed to be female (40% for the London
Transport Museum).
8.4.4 8.5% of online respondents consider themselves to have a disability.
Use of the websites
8.4.5 Both the surveys and the focus groups confirmed that the overwhelming majority of website usage was for planning a visit to the museum. However, the website was not a key factor in the decision to visit – the reputation of the museum in a particular field, location etc. were the main factors.
8.4.6 The least common reasons for using the website were:
■■ browsing for fun;
■■ saw publicity [for the website];
■■ recommendation;
■■ teacher looking for resources or events.
8.4.7 Asked about what they would like to see more of on the website the most popular choices amongst respondents were:
■■ more information on the museum galleries;
■■ more information on the museum’s objects;
■■ more detailed information about collections in store;
■■ more details about events and exhibitions.
8.4.8 The least popular options were:
■■ more opportunities to comment or upload own content;
■■ more opportunities to buy things online.
Use of web statistics by Hub museums
8.4.9 Usage of web statistics across the Hub partners was variable. Different museums used
different analysis packages, some used several packages or used different packages for
special exhibition features. Both server-side and browser-based analysis packages were
used. Web statistics were used for a variety of purposes:
■■ reporting;
■■ diagnostics and design;
■■ marketing and audience development.
Off website internet activity and presence was not measured.
8.4.10 Staff were reluctant to share data with partner museums owing to concerns about how
comparisons would be made and conclusions about performance drawn.
Developing Hub audience analysis strategy
8.4.11 The London Hub has found that although there are technical barriers to adopting a common methodology for analysing online audiences, the greater challenge is organisational.
Following this exploratory research concrete steps that will enable them to move towards a
common approach to audience analysis have been agreed.
8.4.12 A series of workshops were held on themes relating to exploitation of the web by museums.This was intended to deliver specific benefits:
■■ to promote corporate buy-in for audience analysis work carried out to drive and support
service enhancement;
■■ skill development and sharing expertise across different teams of museum staff – at
present audience analysis functions are typically split across the technical and marketing
and communications teams.
8.4.13 A two-tier approach to web statistical data is being adopted:
■■ Statistical measures for reporting purposes (internally to senior management etc. and
externally to funders, for advocacy etc.) will be simple and standardised, so that:
−− trends across the Hub can be reliably identified;
−− ‘headline messages’ will be easy to communicate.
■■ More detailed statistics useful for service design and planning at the project or
organisational level do not lend themselves to comparative analysis:
−− meaningful measures are more closely tied to individual website design and structure;
−− standards against which to measure performance at this level are best set by the
project or organisation.
8.4.14 Whilst web statistics provide useful measures of the quantity of resource usage, they do not address the quality of the usage experience. The London Hub is committed to developing a framework for collecting data on how online services are received by the audience and the broader impact that online services have on organisations as a whole.
Online Audiences in cultural heritage 