Across Europe, cultural heritage sites are rethinking how they engage with visitors. Beyond preservation, the challenge today is to create experiences that are meaningful, inclusive, and responsive to diverse audiences.

Yet many institutions still rely on informal feedback or fragmented data to understand what works - and what doesn’t. This makes it difficult to design spaces and narratives that truly resonate with visitors.

Developed within the HeritACT project, Usersence responds to this gap by offering a structured way to capture and interpret the visitor experience. 

Usersence brings together a set of tools and methods to help cultural professionals better understand their audiences through structured, real-world data collection. At its core is a combination of sensor-based observation, user surveys, and behavioural analysis.

The toolkit allows practitioners to capture how visitors actually interact with heritage spaces. This includes movement tracking and spatial behaviour (e.g. flows, dwell times, congestion points), as well as environmental and perceptual factors such as comfort, accessibility, and clarity of information. These insights are complemented by on-site and digital questionnaires, collecting qualitative feedback on emotions, satisfaction, and perceived barriers. 

All collected data is structured through a common evaluation framework, enabling comparison across sites and over time. The tool supports the creation of experience indicators - covering aspects such as usability, inclusiveness, engagement, and overall visitor satisfaction - helping stakeholders identify where interventions are most needed.

Rather than requiring specialised expertise, Usersence is designed to be used directly by site managers, local authorities and cultural practitioners. Its adaptable framework means it can be applied across different contexts, from museums and historic centres to cultural events.

By linking behavioural data with user perception, Usersence provides a more complete understanding of the visitor journey, enabling heritage managers to design targeted improvements and monitor their impact over time.