Personalised visitor itineraries are key elements from at least two perspectives.
One refers to the visitor’s choice of a particular museum, out of an entire offer on the cultural market.
The museum team, of course, has to suggest to the visitor a path to follow within the exhibition. Still, the visit might be influenced by other elements, such as time availability, visitor’s interest in a particular topic, etc. Therefore, it is advisable that the end-user may have access to the cultural product, i.e. the exhibition, at the own pace and, more importantly, according to the own curiosity and will to learn new information.
Another element to take into consideration is the memorability of the visit, and to a certain extent this aspect is well connected to the previous one. For instance, if a visitor goes through the exhibition as part of a group, then it is the group as a whole which most often imposes the rhythm of the visit.
Still, there are cases where an individual might need/want to spend more time than the rest in front of a certain exhibit. Another situation is when the visitor, individual or group member, receives or not a form of mediated content delivered by a live guide or by an audio/multimedia guide. If the visit includes such mediation, then it is very important to adapt the content to the real interest of the visitor:
- In the case of the face-to-face mediation, then the live guide needs to be able to adapt the discourse to the end-user’s needs.
- If the mediation is done by means of an audio/multimedia guide, then the equipment must be provided with the option of stopping the content delivery whenever he/she considers fit, or on the contrary, of delivering more information.
The era of “one size fits all” cultural offers is over, and more and more visitors look for experiences adapted to their expectations.
Therefore, one of the primary benefits of personalised museum content delivery is the customer satisfaction.
This is expected to trigger good reputation for the museum or cultural organisation providing the personalised information.
As personalisation is a tool that adds layers of meaning for the person to whom the content is addressed, it will also serve for the long-term memory of the acquired knowledge, due to the emotional connection created in the learning process.
In terms of challenges, there may be a more detailed process of scheduling personalised visits and of managing the masses of visitors. But at the end of the day, what counts is that visitors are satisfied.