Improve Your Evaluative Skills

1. Spend 20 - 30 minutes "on the floor." Make a checklist of behaviors you are looking for (e.g. how many times did a visitor use a specific interactive component? how often did visitors read labels?), and observe. Try simply using a blank pad to note what visitors do and say, where they go, what works and what does not. Invite your colleagues to do the same and compare notes.
   
   
2. Collect demographic information by giving out simple survey cards - they are inexpensive and easy for people to use. Ask about their age, gender, ethnicity, education, prior experience with your organization, and where they live. The card could double as a quick interview tool.
   
   
3. Ask visitors "what year were you born?" when collecting demographic information. Older adults feel more comfortable with this question than, "how old are you?"
   
   
4. Encourage candid feedback. When interviewing visitors, let them know you did not create the program or exhibit you are discussing. They are more likely to give their honest opinions rather than try to please you.
   
   
5. Attract people to your comment book – a valuable source of information. Make it stand out visually from the background by using unexpected shapes, colors, or materials, like black sticky notes with gold and silver pens.
   
   
6. Ask specific questions in your comment book. Consider using prompts or "thought questions" about the visitor's experience to reveal his or her attitudes, perceptions, and opinions:
   • Did you check out the resource room at the end of the exhibit?
   • Would you recommend the self-guided tour of the children's garden to other parents? Why or why not?
   • Did you look at our web site before deciding to come?
     At the same time that you gather information, you create another chance to personally engage the visitor.
     
     
7. Gather an impromptu focus group. Before spending a lot of money on printing, take the time to get feedback from your community. Set up a table with mock-ups of several different styles of brochures, for example, and listen to what people have to say.
   • Are they attracted to one design in particular?
   • Does one have a clear message?
   • Which one is easiest to read?
     Forty to fifty opinions will be plenty to give you a sense of your users' perspectives.
     
     
8. Conduct micro-interviews. If you wonder what your community thinks, go right to the source and ask. Have a clear objective in mind and take just 90 seconds to interview random visitors at an art exhibition, for example:
   • Did they understand the term "minimalism"?
   • Did they examine the photos of monumental sculpture in outdoor installations, off to the side of the main sculpture exhibition?
     You don't need a large sample. Twenty to thirty people can help you get the answers you seek.
     
     
9. Create a "piggy-back" focus group. When your stakeholders gather for a workshop, board meeting, or other event, take the opportunity to get the feedback you need on a particular program or exhibition, or even broader concerns. Just 10 - 15 minutes will do. You will save time, and give people a break from the regular agenda.
   
   
10. Form advisory groups. Teacher advisory groups are common in museums, for example, but you can develop a variety of advisory boards to represent the communities you serve. Families with young children, teens and 'tweens, people with special needs, and cultural or religious communities, to name a few, will all provide you with different perspectives and quick feedback when you need it most.