We'll give a primer on user testing and audience research methods we’ve developed to assess, analyze and understand attitudes and behaviors towards technology in museums. Then we’ll walk through five key lessons learned that can be applied to any museum digital project. After many (many) hours of user testing and audience research focused on the visitor experience with in-gallery museum interactives, we have gained (sometimes surprising!) insights. Assumptions about age, learning styles, social media usage, dwell time, educational versus entertainment value (and much more) are often confounded when the data speaks. We use a combination of surveys, interviews, and observational techniques and pair our audience focused studies with institutional stakeholder interviews for a 360 understanding. Speaker(s) Session Leader : Samantha Diamond, CEO, CultureConnect MCN 2016 Presenting Sponsor: Piction New Orleans, LA