“鎖與鑰匙二千年”特展觀眾研究

The Visitor Study of the Special Exhibition of "Locks & Keys 2000"

李如菁

《科技博物》 5卷3期 (2001/05) Pp. 71-86

https://doi.org/10.6432/TMR.200105.0071

並列摘要

The study is based on the collection and research in visitors’ feedback with a discussion on methodology towards the special exhibition of ”Locks & Keys 2000” held in National Science & Technology Museum from May to September in 2000.
There are two ways of collecting the feedback: through the guest books and the questionnaires. The questionnaires are mainly used for obtaining data in quantity and understanding certain specific aspects or basic questions. The guest books are for collecting data in quality, in which we expect that visitors may leave more opinions to compensate the insufficiency of the limited pages of the questionnaires. Visitors were free to take the questionnaires and there were 375 copies being received during the period from June to August in 2000. Among them, 345 copies were helpful. Three guest books were placed at the entrances, but with different titles. During the opening period of the exhibition, there were, in total, nearly thousand pages of information being collected.
The feedback of visitors is described as follows:
Ⅰ) Visitors were mainly students and youth. Female visitors were obviously more than male visitors.
Ⅱ) 60% of visitors had known the information of the exhibition before they came to museum. Their information was mainly from friends and news reports. Almost all visitors expected to learn certain knowledge from the activity.
Ⅲ) Most visitors stayed for more than 10 minutes and felt satisfied with the exhibition. The focus of the visit is in the ancient locks, the interactive exhibits and label texts.
Ⅳ)More than 80% of visitors thought that the exhibition matched or surpassed their anticipation and were satisfied with it. Knowledge acquisition and interest inducement are the major rewards.
Ⅴ) The ancient locks were the most favored display articles and 80% of visitors answer ”no any unfavored objects.” Besides, chastity belts were the most criticized display articles.
Ⅵ) Visitors thought the most needed improvement is the explanation of the display articles and the ancient locks. They believe: the size of the exhibition can be expanded, clearly defined the circulation pattern of the visit (without the free style), the sound of the film needs to be improved, more on-site tour guide or volunteers are needed, voice guidance can be provided, and the written order of the guest books have to be well maintained.
As for the methodology, if the ways of collecting visitors' feedback could have been considered in the planning period and appropriately collocated with the exhibition content, it would have helped the efficiency and result for the data collection. The questionnaires used in general studies could receive quite more information if it had been planned well. In addition to be the tool of collecting feedback, using guest books can shorten the gap between visitors and the exhibition, or even become an intermediary participating in the exhibition.
The study is aimed at promoting the understanding to visitors and providing comments of success or failure of the exhibition in museum. The conduct of collecting visitors' feedback can induce visitors of thinking more and shortening the gap between visitors and the exhibition. Furthermore, it can form a path of communication between visitors and museum, and this is the highest level of significance for collecting visitors' feedback and at the same time, it's an ambitious direction of the contemporary museum.