Context
London Museum Docklands has a popular and well established Early Years offer. The museum wanted to understand the impact of changes to visitor engagement post COVID and how it could evolve the offer to meet the changing needs of families with young children.
The goal was to keep families engaged while broadening the programme’s appeal to new visitors, especially families from local boroughs that do not currently visit. The insights would help shape future investment in the programme and demonstrate its long-term value within the museum’s wider public offer.
We designed a mixed-method study combining both quantitative and qualitative techniques to build a full picture of family needs and motivations. This included surveys with current and potential participants, in-depth group conversations with parents and carers, and contextual interviews with families during their museum visits.
We also used creative observation methods to capture the babies and toddlers engagement — from signs of curiosity and comfort to moments of play and connection — giving the museum a useful insight into how they experienced the sessions.
The research explored what families valued most, what might be putting others off, and what could make the programme more appealing to new audiences. We brought these insights together into a set of practical, actionable recommendations for the next phase of programme design.
The study gave the museum a clear understanding of what families want and need from the baby and toddler programme — and how to adapt it for the future. It revealed how to tailor content, scheduling, and communication to suit different audience groups, and how to make sessions more welcoming and accessible.
The findings directly informed the redesign of the programme, inspiring new event formats, clearer messaging around benefits, and targeted outreach to underrepresented family groups. They also sparked valuable internal conversations about the long-term role of the programme within the museum’s wider learning and engagement strategy.
Following the success of this project, London Museum invited us to continue working with them on further research phases to keep developing and growing their offer for families with young children.