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DESIGNING A WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE

When it’s a great experience, going to a museum can teach us, delight us and inspire us; however, a lot of effort goes into a museum exhibit design. As architects, we can learn a lot by understanding the ingredients that make such designs so successful. It’s not as simple as you might think.

A museum is constantly looking for different ways to attract visitors, but what happens once they get there? Often they suffer from three main problems — they can’t find a specific piece of information, they must leave too soon because they are bored or they stay a long time but miss key lessons from the main exhibits. (1)

Obviously, visitor accessibility and attention are paramount, but that’s not all it takes to design for a great museum experience.

WHAT MUSEUM’S MUST DO

The following are 10 ingredients for successful museum exhibit design:

1. Motivate Visitors:
   Target an audience — the general public and/or specific communities (1)
2. Focus Content:
   Filter content so visitors are not bombarded with information overload (1)
3. Immersion:
   Engage visitors within a “story” (1)
4. Modularity:
   Present smaller themes instead of one larger complex topic (1)
5. Skimmability:
   Information should be easy to take in because visitors are often standing and/or have different levels of education (1)
6. Patterns:
   Incorporate traffic/circulation patterns, exhibit sequence patterns and pre-existing framework patterns (architectural elements) (1)
7. Capture Curiosity:
   Use storytelling techniques to engage visitors (1)
8. Interaction:
   Give visitors a “fun” experience by tapping into their emotion (1)
9. Integrate Technology:
   Technology should enhance visitor’s experience, not detract from it (1)
10. Layer Content:
    Present information in a hierarchical manner (1)

BEYOND THE MUSEUM EXPERIENCE

The latter design secrets apply to more than just museum experiences. Each taps into some common problems that many other architectural building-types face. As an architect, you should “move” your occupants “physically, intellectually and emotionally”. (1)

By taking a closer look at museum exhibit design — you will see such designers are able to tap into the senses as they choreograph different elements like narrative and interaction to spark visitor curiosity. As architectural technology progresses toward more dynamic and interactive solutions, you will have even more ways to give your occupants a “complete” experience. The 10 tips listed above are a good place to start.

(1) Carliner, Saul. Modeling Information for Three-Dimensional Space: Lessons Learned from Museum Exhibit Design. Models, Processes, and Techniques of Information Design.

© 2008-2010 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

Image: Nejron | Dreamstime

Museums are great places for learning. In a museum children and adults alike can immerse themselves in distant places or learn how scientific discoveries are made. Museums can also reveal a cultural past, present or future. All in all, museums are great places to learn – especially as new technology helps designers to improve museum exhibit design.

Museum exhibits are getting evermore technologically advanced and virtual reality is one of the latest trends. Of course, virtual reality can be immersive, interactive or both. In the paper Immersive Interactive Virtual Reality in the Museum by Maria Roussou, “computer generated interactive experiences” are said to be able to “transcend physical locations”.(1) Museum visitors are able to make choices during their virtual travel enabling them to feel a sense of exploration – triggering curiosity and the desire to learn.

Most virtual reality exhibits cater to both the visual and aural senses. Such exhibits can be quite awe inspiring as visualizations are getting increasingly detailed. By using both head-worn and hand-held devices, visitors are able to interact with the simulation in a variety of new ways. However, the problem arises when designers try to meet the varied needs of a multitude of visitors.

Unfortunately, because museums attract a large number of diverse visitors, the technological components are not “one-size-fits-all”. Thus, stereoglasses are often clunky – especially for children to use. Another common issue with virtual reality exhibits is that many visitors tend to develop motion sickness. To prevent this, “good sight lines, ample seating, comfortable viewing for extended periods, good field of view and ergonomics” all contribute to positive immersive learning experiences.(1)

Museum exhibits that incorporate virtual reality really can better a visitor’s experience. The ability to simulate experiences opens exhibit design up to so many creative solutions – it remains up to designers to comfortably and innovatively apply virtual reality.

(1) Roussou, Maria. Interactive Virtual Reality in the Museum. Foundation of the Hellenic World. Greece.

© 2008-2010 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman