The National Trust and the User Experience of Heritage Sites
Included: 1. An introduction to the National Trust its Strategy & Operation 2. Observations 3. Recommendation Names of the site and relevant participants withheld ©AngusBamford2020
Introduction to the National Trust, its strategy and operation
With 2020 marking its 125th Anniversary the National Trust (NT) is a large and historic charity organisation, operating heritage sites and properties across the UK with ‘14,000 staff members and 65,000 volunteers’ (National Trust, 2020). It considers its job as and always to be “to protect and care for places so people and nature can thrive” (McGrady 2020, p 3). Their current mission as illustrated in their Strategy 2020-2025 Is characterised in six parts:
The NT operates across mediums from architecture to parklands, encompassing all classified as heritage. Heritage according to Laura-Jane Smith in her book “Uses of Heritage” (2006) is a terminology used to ‘construct, reconstruct and negotiate social, cultural and aesthetic value. Heritage thus embodies remembrance and commemoration while negotiating and constructing a sense of place, belonging and understanding’ (Smith, 2006. p 3). In practice heritage is about the managing, interpretation, experiencing and conserving of culture. However, to whom it serves and reflects is a key indicator of a societies values as heritage is “inherently dissonant and contested” (Ibid). The NT therefore as a provider of heritage has the responsibility to appropriately direct how a site of heritage is maintained and publicly seen.
The NT with now over “6 million members as of 2020” (National trust, 2020), is a pivotal organisation in directing and facilitating cultural engagement within the UK. The NT is the benchmark for practice within the field of heritage alongside English Heritage. Due to such influence, the NT must lead the sector with an effective strategy. This they did through undergoing a significant shift in strategy in 2010 the NT transitioned away from a considered top-down organisational approach to a bottom-up and audience-led approach, with the strategic change from being forever, for everyone to for everyone, forever. This strap-line change although seemingly trivial was highly controversial within the organisation, as it symbolised the change in the organisational perspective upon heritage from an attitude of preservation first, to one of people first. This disrupted the value of heritage sites within the UK, from one previously prescribed as artefact led, prestigious however unapologetically disconnected with community life, to one focused on being inclusive, with a process of modernising through altering operation, purpose, interpretation and fundamentally audience. This transition has been essential in organisational sustainability, as with a changing audience profile within the UK, the role of which the NT plays must accommodate to remain viable both ethically and financially.
Devolved organisational model as Industry differentiation
NT compared with other cultural organisations differs in that it has many sites with varying purpose and audience, it is due to that which reasons their need from a devolved model. Many cultural organisations are much smaller and government-funded comprising of small teams, to best serve its purpose. The NT understanding of the needs of small teams to better service gives independence to each site with an organisational structure of its own. Like many franchises, the central team is in charge of the guidance and structure to maintain a strong brand and affiliatory marketing (Brand awareness through affiliation). Whereas, the sites manage solely the on-the-ground trade with limited interference, enabling flexibility. Since the late 1990s, the UK politically has seen a benefit in devolving power and responsibility to better the relationship between central and periphery state entities through giving ownership. This process was called ‘devolution’(“Devolution involves the transfer of powers from a superior to an inferior political authority” (Bogdanor 1999 .p2)) and was commonly referred to regarding the power-sharing agreements between Westminster and Wales, Scotland and Northern Island. Unlike ‘federalism’, the devolved power remains subordinate to the central governing body, alike the NT in which each site is still accountable to the central organisation. Devolution aligned with the organisational strategic direction is better purposed in maintaining a close audience relationship as local desires are best served when trust is provided to the community to programme and manage in turn increasing visitor numbers and maintain effective preservation. However, in maintaining brand continuity a power-sharing needs to balance between local needs and controlling the single brand image that maintains the NT as a symbol of beautiful places, and the affiliatory marketing tool for individual sites.
The structure of the organisation
Organisational Model and Culture
Further, NT takes a devolved model to organisational structure. There is for one the central team (CEO, regional manager, board), secondly regional consultants (experience consultant, financial consultant), and thirdly the site teams (site general manager, retail, volunteers). All work under the umbrella of the NT organisation, however in function each act autonomously, with both the sites and consultants receiving funding from the central team to manage specific projects and site maintenance. This enables a tailored management system for each site, and hypothetically a greater audience relationship. Regarding roles for the central team, the focus is on policy and strategy as well as organisational sustainability, human resources and line managers. The consultants work as employees of the NT is between the sites and central team in practically implementing strategy and policy effectively adjusting to individual site’s, conservation and audience needs. The site team lastly consists of an independent entity, managed by the general manager overseeing the sites individual finances, staffing, visitors and maintenance. Although autonomous decisions regarding sites funding beyond the yearly budget are taken by the central team, and a site must request this funding.
The role and responsibilities of Experience Consultants
Considering the strategic shift towards an audience focus, with heavy future investments planned, the experience consultant’s role developed significantly. The experience in which the audience has plays a key role in altering public perception of the NT and ultimately through offering local audiences the site they desire brings about increased revenue through increasing awareness and thus memberships and ticketing. Revenue increases in tern enable a charity to maximise its environmental and social impact by re-investing in the preservation, with limited risk. Conclusively for a charity organisation to effectively fulfil its purpose it must be built upon a financially sustainable organisation, and without investing in audience development the offerings will not entice and not increase profitability and therefore not be sustainable.
The experience consultant unlike a marketing person, goes beyond advertising materials in understanding a user’s experience holistically, identify current undesirables and better encourage and facilitate continual attendance and paying users. The role of experience consultant is a relatively new phenomenon, birthed out of the dot.com revolution called UX design, when tech companies sought to maximise the usability of a digital service when no pre-existing functionalities existed. Through careful study of a user pathway advancements such as the invention of the curser enabled technology to simplify and become accessible to a broader audience, increasing users through innovation not sales. Ultimately as result, the companies which took a UX design focus in development gained competitive advancement, with senior UX designers in tech companies considered highly amongst the executive managers. Considering user experience is essential for all public-facing organisations and the NT by giving such importance to specialists in this field are fore frontal in organisational innovation in the creative industries.
Observations
How the organisation appears to operate overall
Overall the organisation functions effectively in maintaining operations, its structure is rigid and serves well in maintaining continuity and a sense of excellence. Its devolved organisational approach is both effective and future-proof, as it maximises autonomy to individualise properties whilst maintains the single brand image so strong with the NT. A negative however would be the bureaucracy present with innovation hard found, due to constraints of opposing ideas in the organisation. Training staff and building trust in decision-making throughout the organisation no matter the role and level is key to progress.
Observing the NT brand, I saw two parts; one being the care of natural beauty and the other the preserving of historical building, notably those of countryside manor homes. Fundamentally I saw a largely westernised perception of heritage proclaimed by the NT, in which heritage is the land and the structures built resembling the history and victories of those living on the lands. Anecdotally much of the built heritage sites presented by the NT glorify colonialist heritage, through glamorising the riches of many manor houses and grounds across the UK gained from now perceived injustices, Absenting of and often derogative to women, minority ethnic groups and indigenous populations. The National further did not appear to challenge this preconception and its role within directing how heritage is understood in the UK indicates a lack of regard from those who may feel currently unrepresented but what the NT offer. Astoundingly 95% of volunteers in the organisation are white British, and without changing the faces of the NT is a brand image as something overwhelmingly for an audience of older white and British persons. The NT will struggle to remain viable as demographics change. Pink pound and growing BAME economic power indicate a shift in audience in the UK and beyond ethical reasonings, the NT must address its conservative imagine if it is to survive going forward.
Specific Site development
The site itself was a colonial property of the East India Company, however, located in an area with a large Indian subcontinent population. Much of the history displayed within the site had colonialist connotations and was not considered as a place to challenge the damages this history had caused. Due to such, it was clear when observing that the properties narrative needed adjusting to better challenge the history presented at the site. This process is described as a reflective practice which is ‘the capacity to reflect on action so as to engage in a process of continuous learning’ (Lynch, 2014. P7), is it also considered ‘one of the defining characteristics of professional practice’ (Schön, 1983).
Contrary to anecdotal perceptions, after conducting surveys with local residents interestingly the majority cared little for the history of the place, arguing that it isn’t what is the place resembles that isolates them but the lack of relevant programming for their community. Many used the parklands and gardens surrounding for family time, however never interacted with the house because they simply felt it didn’t offer anything to interest them. Further many of Indian Sub-continent heritage cared little if the house offered a programme to challenge the history space. Without research and a bother to consult the community the site through its programming would have led to the same subjecting of perspectives that colonialism had. If you run heritage sites you must acknowledge not only the message and history the place symbolises but also the ways in which people value and use it, and most importantly those most disengaged.
Further Site observations included;
- No accessibility to upper house floors due to there not being a lift
- Park signage underutilized in directing people to the house to which was where money was made
- No well-equipped café or retail space. The design was outdated and merely attracted those who visited the site.
- Car-park overused very often, commonly full on weekend, this with small charge can be a revenue source increasing the car park spaces would be of economic value
- Museum layout simple and unamusing, layout change would not be possible, however, creating more interactivity with the space and artefacts as well as increasing usability for school-aged persons would help maximise audiences beyond the current mostly older persons interested in the architecture and history.
- Parklands needed a clean-up and revamp, with out-of-date signage, signs of vandalism and worn-out paths.
- Recommendations for the organisation from your research
- In addressing the observations above, two key methodologies are recommended to facilitate better visitor experience and brand and public relation image. These are ‘co-design’ and ‘landscape architecture and spatial planning’.
Recommendations
Co-design curation and programming
"The first principle in decolonising our thinking in museums is to find – and understand – where we are located in the matrix of power, by race, class, educational privilege, gender, sexuality, nationality, religion, language, etc. When we came into the world, the matrix was already there and had a place for each of us"
Walter Mignolo 2014. Accessed in Our Museum: A five-year perspective from a critical friend Bernadette Lynch
Through participatory development, co-design brings the audience into the strategic planning process. Co-design is a methodology in which activities are built to enable participates to express desires and pro-actively offer suggestions to better facilitate the visitor experience.
Examples of Co-design which the NT could do:
- Identify the audience of development, reach out to community and work in collaboration to programme series of events and initiatives tailored to them. Industry example is The Tate Exchange, in which through artists in social housing residents historically low in arts engagement, were invited to produce and curate an exhibition at Tate modern. The Tate in doing so offered an experience which helps develop life-long skills and an opportunity to be heard effectively, giving professional expertise.
- Open-up board spaces for those underrepresented, directly changing the power-relation. The roundhouse to encourage younger audiences gave the opportunity to persons under 25 to become a paid board member, under their Youth Advisory Board (RYAB). In doing so the roundhouse programme and attitudes of the organisation became more youth-oriented and focused on increasing youth attendance.
- Use focus groups and workshops to understand how individuals value a place. Discuss strategy directly with the audience. This was used for the site and was successful in identifying the value of the place, previously unknown, avoiding misunderstood wants, saving money, time and backlash.
Landscape architecture and spatial planning
“The number of visits through the pay barrier is only about 13% of the number of visits to the park” (Elliot, 2020), so attracting people through the pay barrier should be a focus going forward, a way to facilitate this is spatial planning and landscape architecture. Spatial planning is a methodology which aims to direct people in a given space, related to goals. Spatially planning out a heritage site especially one which involves both parklands and infrastructure is critical in curating pathways for people, to increase usability and maximise interaction with points of sale. Landscape architecture is specifically aligned with the curating of natural lands to best present the natural beauty of outdoor space, helping develop them as places to stop and wonder. For the NT and especially the site. Working with spatial planners and landscape architects in collaboration also known combined as “spatial-architecture” (Kochergina, 2017. P3) is essential in improving the sites overall appearance and streamline the visitor experience creating enjoyment as well as improving the functionalities of the space in improving revenue and even bolster preservation through directing visitor behaviour and avoid issues which were apparent at the site such as loitering, vandalism and littering. Many city organisations have utilised this methodology in creating ‘Cultural clusterings’, and ‘Museum Quarter’ which aimed to “boost urban economic development and social cohesion” (Kochergina, 2017. P1). This can be applied to individual heritage in the same manner, through creating a space of multi-function and community orientation. Cultural Innovations is an organisation which works on specific Cultural sites in developing effecting spatial-architectural planning and work across content and interpretation, Museum and exhibition design, strategy and master planning and operations and programming, aiming to holistically produce the visitor experience.
Bibliography
Bogdanor, V., 2001. Devolution in the United Kingdom. Oxford Paperbacks.
Cultural Innovations website. Available at: https://www.culturalinnovations.com/[Accessed 25/05/2020]
Kochergina, E., 2017. Urban Planning Aspects of Museum Quarters as an Architectural Medium for Creative Cities. IOP Conference Series
Luigina, C., 2016. Articulating co-design in museums: reflections on two participatory processes. Sheffield Hallam University Research Archive.
Lynch, B, 2014 “Our Museum: A five-year perspective from a critical friend”. The Paul Hamlyn Foundation. Available at: file:///C: /A-five-year-perspective-from-a-critical-friend%20(1).pdf[Accessed 25/04/2020]
The National Trust website. Availiable at: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/[Accessed 19/05/2020]
The National Trust, 2019. Annual Report 2018/19. Available at: https://nt.global.ssl.fastly.net/documents/201819-annual-report.pdf[Accessed 19/05/2020]
The National Trust, 2020. Brand Stratergy 2020-2025.[Accessed 19/05/2020]
The National Trust, 2018. Experience Design Handbook. [Accessed 20/05/2020]
Roundhouse Website. Available at: https://www.roundhouse.org.uk/about-us/whos-who/roundhouse-youth-advisory-board/[Accessed 25/05/2020]
Schön, D. (1983) The Reflective Practitioner, How Professionals Think In Action (Basic Books)
Tate Website. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/tate-exchange/workshop/unearthing[Accessed 26/04/2020]
Cover photo taken from: https://advisor.museumsandheritage.com/news/links-to-colonialism-and-historic-slavery-explored-in-new-national-trust-report/