A how-to guide for creating visitor-centered, inclusive museum experiences.
Designing Museum Experiences, published by Bloomsbury, leads readers through the methods and tools of the three stages of a museum visit — Pre-visit, In-Person Visit, and Post-visit — with a goal of motivating visitors to return and revisit the museum in the future.
Museums are changing from static, encyclopedic institutions to visitor-centric organizations with shared authority, where museum and visitors become co-creators in content creation. This book provides the framework to make that transformation actionable.
"The reason for using the tools is to empower visitors and meet their emotional and intellectual needs, with the goal of creating a lifelong bond between museum and visitor."
The companion website to Designing Museum Experiences features the full library of tools referenced in the book — free to download and use in your institution.
The Museum Toolbox is a curated collection of frameworks, worksheets, and planning tools used in real museum projects across the full arc of institutional development — from community assessment through opening day.
Each tool is designed to be immediately actionable: download, adapt, and use with your team, board, or stakeholders.
A personal practice. Every engagement is worked directly — there is no associate who handles the day-to-day. When a board asks who they are hiring, the answer is: Mark.
Understanding the community before any design decisions are made. Who are the visitors? What does the region already have?
Visitor projections, financial modeling, site evaluation, and peer benchmarking. Can this institution succeed?
Mission-driven planning that connects institutional purpose to physical reality and long-term trajectory.
From concept to construction documents — objects, interactives, interpretation, technology, and visitor journey choreography.
Revenue mix, operating budgets, staffing plans, and capital campaign strategy for a sustainable institution.
Proprietary 0–100 scoring — visitor experience, digital presence, financial health, community impact, institutional strength.
A proprietary 0–100 composite scoring framework where every metric is normalized for institutional size. Raw numbers never used alone — only ratios and rates count.
A $500K museum with a strong digital strategy can score 85+ and outrank a $25M institution.
Spatial computing, embodied AI, and distributed intelligence are not future concerns. They are design decisions being made right now, in master plans and feasibility studies.
Museums are shifting from static interpretive spaces to responsive, perceptual environments capable of modifying content, lighting, narrative, and pathways based on embodied interaction.
Museum Planning LLC works at this intersection — translating the framework of Convergence Era (2026) into built, operational reality.
Mark Walhimer is the managing partner of Museum Planning LLC, a museum consultancy, and a part-time industrial design professor. Museum Planning LLC specializes in the planning, design, and management of interactive educational experiences, with more than forty projects worldwide for an international clientele that includes science centers, art museums, history museums, libraries, and corporations.
Projects include "turnkey" museum services for the City of McDonough, Georgia's C.O. Polk Interactive Museum; project manager and National Park Service liaison for "Alcatraz: Life on the Rock" traveling exhibition; project manager for Museo Interactivo de Economía (MIDE) in Mexico City; and master planning and exhibition design for Trans Studio Science Center in Bandung, Indonesia.
Prior to founding Museum Planning LLC in 1999, Walhimer held positions at Discovery Science Center, the Children's Museum of Indianapolis, Tech Museum San Jose, and Liberty Science Center, and served as Chief Operating Officer of a museum exhibition design and fabrication firm.
"The plans I produce are designed to be built, not filed. I have been on the other side of the table when a consultant delivers a master plan. I know what happens to that document when the meeting ends."
— Mark Walhimer · Managing Partner · Museum Planning LLC
One hour. No cost. No obligation. Tell us where you are and what you are trying to build — whether that is a feasibility question, a capital campaign, a historic building looking for a mission, or a collection that has never been seen by the public.
Mark is personally involved in every engagement and ready to begin within two weeks of an executed agreement.