National Museum Singapore

Background

With a history dating back to 1887, the National Museum of Singapore is the nation’s oldest museum with a progressive mind. Beneath its 19th-century colonial exterior, it uses cutting-edge technology to present the nation’s legacy and development. Its galleries highlight fresh perspectives of the Singapore story as they take you on an immersive voyage – one where creative storytelling redefines the conventional museum experience.

Objectives and Research Methodology

“To create an intuitive and comprehensive gateway that enables exploration of the national collection and heritage resources by different external and internal user groups.”

Research Methodology:

Web analytics analysis
1 focus group with 12 internal users + follow-up calls with participants to explore individual themes if needed
In-depth interviews with 30 external users
Development of personas

Summary of Findings

Social media has the highest bounce rate; organic search and referral always have the least bounce rate. 50% of users are from touch/mobile devices. Social media is the biggest factor in enquiring new visitors to the website
The most common reason for people bouncing is that the content doesn’t provide an answer to their questions
Users engage through storytelling. Users likely to be engaged through existing motivations
Heritage is about lifestyle, culture, historical event/figure, timeline, architecture/landmarks, food, religion, language
Users want a resource hub with consolidated information, useful listings, and schedule along with the map and teaching tools
Users are most interested in events, opening hours, exhibitions, directions and programs
The most time users spend on Press, Planning & Booking, History, Retail F&B, Programme details, and others
Last time on Publications, Support us, Exhibition future, Education resources, Press, News, and others

Recommendations

Provide progressive disclosure with concise and engaging titles that encourage further exploration and provide more control and direction in information flow
Sharing and promoting of events and engaging stories via Facebook and Instagram. Hashtags
Cross-promote information
Create relevant thematic tags
Showcase your interactive activities that encourage sharing and social bonding
Aggregate and moderate campaigns on heritage engagement
Improve meta-tags for SEO
Increase cross-promotion through interactive maps
Focus on improving detailed descriptions to ensure clear storytelling qualities and explore different types of assets that could engage with the user: virtual tours, video, interactive maps etc.
No dead-ends
Monitor data on exhibitions and promote performing content
Others…