V&A audience research

People who visit the V&A come from a wide variety of places and backgrounds and when they get here they want to visit in many different ways. The V&A has chosen to divide its visitors into six groups to help to plan how to meet visitors’ needs. Considering the characteristics of each group helps ensure we provide services and information that will help everyone enjoy their visit. The six groups are:

These groups overlap so that one individual might visit on one occasion as part of a student group and on another as part of a family group or as an interested adult.

Audience definitions

Families

One or more adults visiting with one or more children aged 0 - 15 or children under 16 visiting alone (not in a school group). Families want to spend leisure time together in a worthwhile pursuit. The children, especially the youngest child, generally drive the visit - when they've had enough so has everyone else!

Typical facilities and information that make visits enjoyable for families are:

• Level access for baby buggies

• Activities to keep children occupied

• Things for children to do and play with (sometimes with their parents and friends)

• Easy text so that adults are able to scan and supply answers to questions

• Questions and suggestions to adults for discussion topics and activities

• Displays at suitable heights for children.

Schools

• School pupils aged 5 - 18 visiting with teachers including 6th-form colleges (not FE or language schools). Schools have some of the clearest demands on the content of displays and exhibitions. Most visits are made in connection with the National Curriculum (up to 16 years old) or post-16 public examination courses.

Typical facilities and information that make visits enjoyable for schools are:

• The use of objects as evidence, what can and cannot be learnt from them, bias in collections and the interpretation of objects and collections are all important. History teachers need displays which contain enough content and objects in relation to their specific needs in order to justify a visit

• Examples of contemporary art and design

• 7 to 14-year-old pupils following the Art and Design curriculum are required to organise and present information in different ways, including the use of a sketchbook

• Space for groups of 30-35 or more

• Further resources for coursework (visual as well as written resources). 

• Displays at suitable heights.

Students

Students are aged 16 years and over and are studying at a college or university, not a school or a 6th form college. Like school pupils, students are curriculum-led, but the content is far more diverse, with a desire to study individual objects close to and in depth, and a demand for individual access to further resources for study.

Typical facilities and information that make visits enjoyable for students are:

• Space for groups, briefing and orientation, guided lectures, sitting and talking

• Access to objects in storage and possibility for handling

• Access to curators and other experts

• Access to information about objects on display, including bibliographies

• Access to other Museum resources:  NAL, Print Room, Archives, Study areas, Photo Library and information on V&A publications

• Printout facility for labels and other text

• Possibilities for taking photographs, sketching and note-taking in galleries

• Access to Museum database, off-site and on-site

• Easily navigable and comprehensive information on Museum website

• Information on events and activities specifically for students

Professionals in the creative industries

We think of the creative industries as being any art or design practitioner, media industry professionals, arts educators and specialists, who may be lecturers, dealers, museum workers, collectors, artists, craftspeople or set dressers.

Typical facilities and information that make visits enjoyable for professionals in the creative industries are similar to those of students, along with:

• Access to peer group debates and more informal types of discussion

• Opportunities for networking and exchange of ideas through continuing professional development

• Possibilities for extended individual research into specific objects or groups of objects

• Access to collections and curators for specialist groups and societies

• Access to educational advice and support for educators

Groups

Group visitors are those who visit in commercial tour groups, adult education groups (e.g. evening classes), voluntary groups, clubs and associations (e.g. seniors' clubs, NADFAS, Townswomen's Guilds, WI etc.), adult and community access groups and any other kind of organised group not part of the formal education system (e.g. youth groups, guides, scouts, prisoners off-site, or a group of people with disabilities).

Typical facilities and information that make visits enjoyable for groups are:

• Space for groups, guided lectures, sitting and talking

• Quick access to key objects for tourists maintaining a steady pace round whole Museum

• Pleasurable and entertaining leisure activity

• Ample seating because of sore feet

In addition, for  groups for whom English is not their mother tongue:

• Simple sentence construction and vocabulary on all text panels

• Awareness of cultural differences

• Information about British culture

• Foreign language provision

• Provision of sub-titles for films and videos (probably in English, for people who might have a better grasp of the written language than the spoken one)

• Text and labels which are accessible to a wide range of language levels

• On-site gallery programmes and tours in appropriate languages

Individual adults not in other categories

Individual adults people aged 16 or over who aren't visiting in organised groups. These are individual adults who manage their own learning rather than being driven by a formal curriculum. They are motivated by curiosity and internal incentives and are not restricted by conventional subject boundaries. Their interest in the Museum may be related to anything from amateur dramatics and needlework to creative writing. They bring varied experiences to the learning process and often operate through word-of-mouth and networks. Outside their own area of expertise they will be novice learners.

Typical facilities and information that make visits enjoyable for individual adults are -

• Information at different levels and in different ways to tie in with their varied learning styles

• Gallery study facilities for independent learning, e.g. books, computers, work desks with good light 

V&A visitor profile

View a spreadsheet of the V&A visitor profile (Excel file, 42KB).