Last October, my husband and I took a trip to Washington, D.C. to meet some friends, and spent time exploring several museums, including the Air and Space Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum, and the National Portrait Gallery. Out of everything we saw, one exhibit stood out: Osgemeos: Endless Story at the Hirshhorn.
The explosion of color, pop culture, and storytelling didn’t just grab my attention—it pulled me in, transported me, and created an instant emotional connection. At one point, I had actual happy tears. I wasn’t just looking at art; I was experiencing it—fully immersed in what felt like a radiant dreamscape of rainbows and energy.
As someone obsessed with extraordinary experiences, I always use SIX to measure my Value Score—whether it’s a live performance, an unforgettable meal, or a museum visit. After leaving the exhibit, I logged my visit to my SIX-connected calendar to see just how valuable this experience was for my brain. The result? A 93 out of 100—an incredibly high score, considering anything above 65 signals a deeply memorable and impactful experience.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago, a friend was headed to D.C. for a three-day trip. With an endless list of must-see attractions, historic landmarks, and world-class museums, I told him that Osgemeos was the one thing he absolutely couldn’t miss. He went. He was blown away. His Value Score? An 86—confirming that the exhibit was just as powerful for him.
And more importantly—how can museums ensure they consistently deliver experiences that captivate visitors, drive word-of-mouth recommendations, and increase return visits?
The answer lies in neuroscience-backed Value Measurement—a revolutionary new solution that pairs neuro-backed algorithms with everyday wearables to quantify emotional connection, optimize exhibits in real time, and transform how museums engage their audiences.
For decades, museums have relied on surveys, visitor counts, and anecdotal feedback to assess exhibit success. But these methods come with serious limitations:
I couldn’t help but shake my head when I saw a docent clicking a people counter as visitors entered Osgemeos. That number tells you how many people showed up—but nothing about whether the exhibit resonated with them. Attendance is a lagging metric that doesn’t reveal how deeply visitors connected with the experience or whether they’ll recommend it to others.
Most visitors don’t remember their entire museum visit—they recall the most intense emotional moment (if they had one) and how they felt at the end. This means that a survey completed at the exit captures only fragments of the experience, distorting the overall picture.
As Daniel Kahneman presented in his book Thinking, Fast and Slow, there’s a fundamental gap between what people neurologically experience in the moment (experiencing self) and what they recall later (remembering self). A visitor may have been fully immersed in an exhibit but struggle to articulate why in a post-visit survey. Traditional feedback methods miss these real-time moments of deep engagement, because they only capture the remembering self.
Visitors may rush through surveys, provide neutral or positively-skewed responses to be polite, or simply not complete them at all. This leaves museums with incomplete, biased, or misleading data about what actually drives visitor value. Further, I regularly hear from experience designers how frustrating it is that a majority of survey-based feedback isn’t at all actionable.
For over 20 years, our team—led by neuroscientist Dr. Paul Zak—has studied how people form deep emotional connections with experiences. His groundbreaking research mapped the brain’s socio-emotional valuation network, revealing the mechanisms behind neurologic value and lasting impact. Immersion builds on this foundation with automated algorithms that detect the activation of this network, transforming neuroscience into real-time, actionable insights for experience creators.
Raw biometric data alone doesn’t explain what’s happening in the brain. Our algorithms detect subtle shifts in heart rhythm over time, signaling activation of the brain's socio-emotional valuation network. This activation releases oxytocin and dopamine—neurochemicals that drive emotional connection and deep engagement, creating distinct physiological patterns that our algorithms can detect. Immersion translates these signals into meaningful insights, helping museums understand what visitors truly value in an experience.
Integrating Value Measurement is simple and non-intrusive. Museums can deploy it effortlessly using QR codes placed throughout exhibits or in post-visit emails. Visitors opt in with a quick scan and app download, then pair their wearable devices—such as Oura Ring, Apple Watch, Whoop, Fitbit, and others—to anonymously share their emotional engagement in real time.
Privacy and anonymity are top priorities. No raw biometric data is stored or transferred—only anonymized emotional impact metrics (Value and Safety) are collected. This ensures visitor trust while delivering powerful insights.
The best part? Neuroscience is now accessible through a simple app that works with wearables visitors already use. With over two decades of research behind it, our technology predicts key behaviors—such as exhibit recall, word-of-mouth recommendations, and repeat visits—with over 85% accuracy.
For museums striving to create truly impactful exhibits, real-time, objective engagement measurement is now within reach. It’s affordable and scalable, with measurement costs as low as $10 per participant, making it accessible to institutions of all sizes. Additionally, Value Measurement supports location-based tracking and optional beacons, enabling museums to map emotional impact across different sections of an exhibit and analyze visitor movement patterns.
Unlike surveys, which only capture recalled experiences, Value Measurement captures the lived experience—helping museums consistently deliver high-value, emotionally engaging exhibits.
One of the most exciting applications of interactive museum technology is the ability to create adaptive exhibits—experiences that respond dynamically to visitor engagement in real time. By integrating visitor Value and Safety metrics from the SIX app via API, museums can dynamically adjust exhibit elements in real time—ensuring each visitor experiences the most emotionally engaging and impactful version of the exhibit.
With Value Measurement’s real-time insights, museums can:
For example, imagine an ancient Egyptian exhibit where visitors show a surge in emotional connection while examining a sarcophagus. Instead of passively moving on, the exhibit adapts in real time—shifting the ambient lighting to a warm torch-lit glow, releasing a subtle scent of aged papyrus, and triggering an AR overlay that reveals what the mummification process looked like. Visitors aren’t just learning about history—they’re feeling it unfold around them.
SIX enables museums to move beyond static exhibits into truly responsive, emotionally intelligent experiences that capture attention, deepen impact, and keep visitors engaged longer. By using real-time neuroscience-driven insights, museums can transform passive visitors into active participants, creating more memorable, immersive, and share-worthy experiences that drive deeper engagement and repeat visits.
Museums are no longer just places to observe history and art—they’re experiential destinations where visitors expect to be engaged, inspired, and emotionally connected. The most successful exhibits don’t just inform; they immerse audiences in unforgettable moments that spark curiosity, wonder, and deeper understanding.
Every time I think back to the Osgemeos exhibit, I remember how it made me feel—completely immersed, transported, and connected. Just like the butterflies I felt seeing Van Gogh’s used palette in Amsterdam, the awe of gazing at Dali’s sleeping chair in Figueres, and the magic of a massive rotating crystal casting rainbows around a room in D.C.—all experiences from 12+ years ago, these moments stay with me. They weren’t just exhibits; they were profound experiences that shaped how I see the world. And that’s what every museum strives to create: moments so powerful that visitors carry them long after they’ve left.
🚀 Let’s redefine the museum experience together. Connect with us to learn how Value Measurement can help you create exhibits that truly resonate.