{"id":6610,"date":"2018-09-11T19:22:00","date_gmt":"2018-09-11T19:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/accesso.test\/news\/learn\/accesso-blog-series-how-to-create-an-effective-journey-map-for-your-museum\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T13:36:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T17:36:32","slug":"accesso-blog-series-how-to-create-an-effective-journey-map-for-your-museum","status":"publish","type":"learn","link":"https:\/\/accesso.com\/learn\/accesso-blog-series-how-to-create-an-effective-journey-map-for-your-museum\/","title":{"rendered":"accesso Blog Series: How to Create an Effective Journey Map for Your Museum."},"content":{"rendered":"

A hot topic in and around museums is the visitor journey. Not just reserved for the museum<\/a> community but in many experiential leisure industries, the guest journey has become central to conversations around road mapping, planning, exhibition preparation and engagement in general. If your venue has not yet begun this exploration, you may be asking what is a journey map and why is it important to my organization? Read on to discover why journey mapping is important and what it can do for your cultural institution.<\/p>\n

What is a Journey Map?<\/h3>\n

A journey map is a document that visualizes the guest experience. It encompasses every interaction a guest has with your venue, from the initial point of purchase to the path they take onsite and beyond. By examining this journey from the perspective of the guest, organizations can evaluate, change and unify a guest\u2019s experience. Journey mapping also establishes a way to set strategic goals, bridge departmental silos and allow for communication that may not currently exist in your museum. In order to start working on your ideal guest journey, you must follow some basic steps to identify problematic areas, opportunities and areas for growth and change.<\/p>\n

Step 1: Know Your Visitors<\/h3>\n

When beginning a journey map, the first step is to collect and analyze information on those who attend your museum. By asking questions, evaluating past survey results, looking at your community and aggregating data from your ticketing<\/a>, point-of-sale<\/a> and guest management<\/a> systems, you can begin to see established patterns that help you learn more about who visits your venue and why.<\/p>\n

Once you have the information on your visitors, you are ready to define the individual personas for your journey map (or maps). Give your personas a name and assign some basic identifying information to them, such as their occupation, age and location. Think about what defines this segment and what\u2019s important to them. For example, you may notice that your Friday Night Events attract a large amount of Millennials ages 24 \u2013 35 and come up with \u201cMillennial Michelle,\u201d a persona who lives in a trendy part of the city, works a full-time position and dedicates a part of her paycheck toward experiencing all that your city has to offer. \u201cMillennial Michelle\u201d might value opportunities for social experiences, an easy mobile purchasing process, immersive digital exhibit guides and special perks and incentives. Conversely, she may get easily frustrated with waiting in lines or a lack of information available online.<\/p>\n

As you create your personas, it\u2019s important to keep an eye toward future consumer preferences and expectations. The modern consumer demands a holistic and integrated experience across an institution\u2019s many channels, whether purchasing admission tickets online<\/a> or researching upcoming exhibits. Catherine Devine of the American Museum of Natural History speaks to the importance of this in a 2015 paper<\/a><\/span> for The Conference of Museums and the Web<\/a>: \u201cVisitors don\u2019t think in channels. Visitors expect a single, unified experience across all of their interactions. Visitors don\u2019t even distinguish between physical and digital experiences, to them it is all one experience, and they expect that to flow seamlessly from one to the other. They buy their tickets in one channel and pick up in another. They indicate interests in one channel, such as website, and expect that to carry through to other channels, such as an app.\u201d<\/p>\n

Step 2: Establish the Flow of Your Guest\u2019s Journey<\/h3>\n

All of this research leads to the next step in determining how these various channels work or don\u2019t work together throughout the museum. When researching a venue\u2019s flow, staff must think about the seamless experience, pre-visit, on-site and post-visit. Start by asking questions like:<\/p>\n