How Digital Displays Are Transforming Visitor Experience in Museums & Galleries

How The Expectations of Today’s Museum Visitor Have Changed

Walk into a modern museum or gallery today and you’ll notice a clear shift. Visitors still value artefacts, artworks and authenticity. But, now, visitors also expect clearer information, richer storytelling and smoother journeys through the space.

For operations teams, buyers, and curators alike, this presents a familiar challenge:

How do you deliver engaging, accessible information without overwhelming the environment, increasing staff workload, or constantly reprinting materials?

Increasingly, museums and galleries are finding the answer in digital signage. This is seen not as a replacement for traditional displays, but as a powerful tool to support them.

Why Use Digital Signage for Museums and Galleries?

Digital displays offer a level of flexibility that static signage simply can’t match. From large national museums to independent galleries, they’re being used to enhance the visitor experience in practical, thoughtful ways.

Bring Stories to Life

Used well, digital displays complement artefacts rather than compete with them, offering context where it’s most helpful. Digital signage allows museums to immerse visitors in history rather than simply describe it.

For example: a screen might guide visitors through a virtual reconstruction of a Norman castle at its peak, highlighting key features and moments as they explore, or invite them to engage with the story through short, interactive quizzes. In more reflective spaces, digital displays can present archival footage, reconstructions or first-hand interviews alongside artefacts, helping visitors connect with the human stories behind major historical events.

Support a Broader Range of Visitors

Museums welcome a diverse audience: families, school groups, international visitors and those with access needs. Digital signage makes it easier to cater for everyone.

Examples include:

• Multilingual content scheduled throughout the day
• Larger text or high-contrast displays for improved readability
• Visual storytelling that engages younger visitors

This adaptability helps create a more inclusive environment while maintaining a consistent visual identity.

"[Digital displays] have revolutionized museum design and curated exhibitions, enabling interactive and engaging displays, personalized visitor experiences, and innovative storytelling and narration techniques" [1]

Solving Real Operational Challenges with Digital Displays

Beyond visitor engagement, digital signage is increasingly valued for the operational benefits it brings to museums and galleries.

Clearer Wayfinding, Smoother Visitor Flow

Reduce Pressure on Staff

Frontline teams often spend a large part of their day answering the same questions: opening times, exhibition locations, event schedules or café details.

Digital signage helps answer these questions before they’re asked, freeing staff to focus on engagement, education and visitor care. From an operational perspective, it acts as a quiet support system, working consistently in the background.

Keep Information Current and Consistent

From exhibition updates to last-minute changes, keeping information accurate across a venue can be time-consuming. Digital displays allow content to be updated centrally, ensuring visitors receive the same message wherever they are in the building.

This is particularly valuable for multi-site museums, temporary exhibitions, and seasonal events.

"57% of surveyed museums report a major positive impact from adopting digital technology" [2]

Creating Interactive Exhibitions with Touchscreen Digital Displays

For many museums and galleries, the next step beyond digital signage is interaction. Touchscreen displays allow visitors to actively explore content, rather than passively consume it, making exhibitions more memorable and engaging, particularly for families, schools and repeat visitors.

Encourage Deeper Engagement

Interactive screens give visitors control over how much information they access. Rather than crowding walls with text panels, museums can offer layered content that visitors explore at their own pace.

Touchscreen displays can be used to:

• Zoom into high-resolution images of artworks or artefacts
• Explore timelines, maps or historical reconstructions
• Access behind-the-scenes content such as conservation work or artist interviews

This approach supports different learning styles while keeping gallery spaces visually uncluttered.

Interactive digital displays are particularly effective in encouraging engagement from younger visitors. Games, quizzes and age-appropriate challenges can be built into touchscreen content, helping families spend longer in galleries and making learning feel natural.

Importantly, these interactive elements can sit alongside traditional aspects, ensuring the exhibition still appeals to adult audiences.

How Museums Are Using Digital Signage in Practice

Many museums are already integrating digital signage in subtle, thoughtful ways to support interpretation and visitor flow. For example, the London Transport Museum has introduced digital displays that combine moving image, sound and interactive elements to help visitors explore stories behind the objects on display, while keeping the surrounding space uncluttered and accessible [3].

Elsewhere, museums are using digital displays at entrances and transition points to orient visitors, promote exhibitions and share practical information. This reduces the need for printed leaflets and helping staff keep messaging consistent as programmes change.

Imagining What Digital Signage Could Do for Your Space

Digital signage doesn’t have to be intrusive, complex or overly technical. When thoughtfully chosen and carefully positioned, it becomes a natural part of the visitor environment. Digital screens can sit comfortably alongside traditional sign holders, offering flexibility without compromising the character of the space.

For buyers and decision-makers, it’s worth considering:

• Where do visitors typically hesitate, queue or ask questions?
• Which messages change frequently throughout the year?
• How could digital displays reduce reliance on printed materials?
• Where can visitors pause to interact with digital displays, without blocking footfall?

Whether it’s a single screen or a network of displays across the site, digital signage gives museums and galleries the ability to adapt, inform and inspire, without increasing operational strain.

As visitor expectations continue to evolve, digital displays are proving to be less about technology for technology’s sake, and more about clear communication, better storytelling and smoother day-to-day operations.

Sometimes, the most effective improvements are the ones that quietly make everything work better, for visitors and staff alike.

Explore the UK POS range of digital displays to find something that works for you.

References

1. ‘A systematic review of digital transformation technologies in museum exhibition’ (December 2024), Computers in Human Behavior, Volume 161, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2024.108407

2. ‘Digital Culture 2019: Museums Fact Sheet’ (2019), Arts Council England

3. Sau-Fun Mo, ‘Let's get digital! Discover the Museum's new and improved displays’ (12 May 2021), London Transport Museum, https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/blog/lets-get-digital-discover-museums-new-and-improved-displays