Abstract

As museums usually target large numbers of visitors with great diversities, it is important for museum professionals to have a well-rounded understanding of the visitors as well as an approach to categorize them so that curation strategies can be applied accordingly and effectiveness achieved. This article presents a study of the exhibition “Dippy Returns” at the Natural History Museum in London. By performing on-site observation, we categorized visitors—by their movements and interactions with the exhibits—into four types: Horse Riders, Treasure Hunters, Picky Eaters, and Deep Divers. We also interviewed a curator of the exhibition to understand intended visitor experiences from the museum’s perspective. We believe that the categorization can help museum professionals better understand on-site visitor behaviors from the perspectives of both interactions and movement, which responds to the trend for museum exhibitions nowadays to deploy a diversity of activities and more flexible visiting routes. The categorization could serve as a common language that curators and designers can use to communicate their expectations and improve visitor experiences with exhibitions.