This article by Shelley Bernstein from the Barnes Foundation shares that museum’s experiences in trying to coax visitors to a late night social event to visit the galleries during their experience. Shelley shares several practical tips and tricks that the team used to diagnose what might be the reasons behind lower-than-desired-visitation and explains the process by which they studied their audiences to find an answer.

To me, this is a powerful story because it shows that small tweaks can be incredibly effective. Another lesson here: sometimes you need to design for the behavior you want to see — in our case collection visitation was that very thing. Tracking existing behavior, taking a fresh look at the experience, and making slight adjustments helped us get there.