Turning Exhibit Exasperation into Elation

It’s all about the visitor or it should be -stimulating their interest and enabling their comprehension.  When is it time to review your exhibits and check for effective communication, logical sequencing of information and appropriate choice of wording relevant to your target visitor?  Ideally before the exhibit gets mounted and arranged, however even afterwards it is helpful to review on a regular basis to ensure visitors “find their way.”

I was reminded of this recently while visiting an archeological museum in northern Italy. The collection was amazing, well displayed in the majority of cases and the objects shined, but the interpretation failed on several levels. When deciding how to set up a context for what visitors will experience along with what exhibits go where, we must always think about the entrance position, the size of the room, and where will people naturally go if given a choice. This is the case I am about to describe.

note entrance doorway and positioning of well lit cases both floor level and vertical wall capturing attention

Image courtesy Bill Reynolds

We have an entrance at the northwestern corner of a large open rectangular shaped room. As you enter you see the north wall and the top half of the exhibit area (not the west wall). People naturally gravitate to where their eyes catch something they are drawn to, in relation to what is within their vision -so, within either of these two sections. This is where you should introduce a framework and help the visitor get oriented to what they will be exposed to.

Instead, both of these areas are artifact- rich, bits and pieces that launch the visitor into random grave goods, using wording familiar to academics, but not to an “average” visitor. There is no introduction to pertinent and specialized vocabulary (necropolis, fibulae, tesserae, to name a few) thereby alienating the visitor right off the bat. Watch your references and wording early on.

If certain words are important for display learning objectives, then introduce and explain them to the visitor. How about a cheat sheet to the wonderful world of words related to archaic human ornamentation, available to all?

Image courtesy Bill Reynolds

The stage had NOT been set, the visitor had NOT been provided with any mental construct to connect & to hold these pieces together. WHY had this been ignored? Well, it hadn’t been. That needed context had been placed on the western wall -around the corner so to speak. Wrong placement !

In the previous image the two women are discussing the maps in front of them on the west wall.

This series of maps delineates the Longabord cultural territory changes over time in relation to other cultures in Europe. This was extremely helpful for context as the arrival of the Longabords in this region as demonstrated by archeological remains was the main topic.

west wall panels Image courtesy Bill Reynolds

A second image shows another west wall section being a set of explanatory panels that also provided the necessary background to understand the display meaning about excavations, and certain archeological elements like the concept of a necropolis, grave goods, chronology, and burial ceremonies. The visitor does not come naturally with this mindset and needs to be introduced to the world of archeological excavation.

Interpretation potential missed its mark because of bad placement. As I went clockwise around the room (like most visitors did), once I got to this point -being the last element visited in the main room, I experienced many moments of clarity, along with confusion resolution finally, because I could understand how everything being presented hung together, as opposed to the material being previously disjointed.

However, if you look closely at the panel images, you will find the panels in question somewhat text dense. In isolation they would be fine as they are well balanced with images. Combined with being lined up vertically side by side in close proximity, they do not present themselves in a reader approachable, welcoming manner.

Now everyone knows what a fibula is so previously written exhibit labels make sense Image courtesy Bill Reynolds

When I explored any of the side rooms off the main area, I discovered some wonderful examples of short, easily read texts above the cases, with large lettering at a level requiring I look up rather than bend over and squint. None of these interfered with the viewing of the artifacts. In addition, another great feature were the backlit silhouettes of a person clearly showing where the artifact would have been located on the body or how it would have been used.

If you are ever wondering about placement and sequencing of your interpretive elements and want to benefit from our expertise, then drop us a line. This makes a difference from a customer satisfaction point of view and from the interpretive mission point of view.

Heritage Visitor FOMO

The following editorial article about museum fatigue comes from August 7 Monocle Minute e-newsletter (Aside: they provide a refreshing worldly perspective on news with a cultural bent and avoid giving a mouthpiece to bombastic political leaders).

The core point deals with the compulsive nature of human beings to “get their money’s worth,” or “to see everything,“ or in today’s lingo -avoid the curse of FOMO=Fear of Missing Out. As a result you can’t avoid suffering from museum fatigue. Author Tom Vanderbilt discusses a large art museum but perspectives are relevant for any heritage site or centre that contains so many potential interactions that single visits become exhausting & mind numbing (so many trails, so many must see objects, so many animal exhibits, so many rooms, so many garden landscapes…).

Do you feel overwhelmed-compelled to take it all in -can you focus and select? or move on?

Image courtesy Bill Reynolds

It got me thinking about interpretive and pricing options to better allow a positive experience that can counter this mindset. I will give you a chance to read the article first. I will share some of my thoughts after. Enjoy!

Got a case of museum fatigue? Here’s how to experience art properly By Tom Vanderbilt

Art critic Kenneth Clark once admitted that he could enjoy a “pure aesthetic sensation” no longer than he could the scent of an orange – less than two minutes. Now picture one of the world’s big art museums, an almost unending succession of aesthetic pleasures. That’s a lot of oranges.
     
It’s little wonder, then, that researchers have been studying “museum fatigue” since the early 20th century. Looking at paintings is pleasurable but it’s also hard physical and cognitive work. Imagine a visitor on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Louvre, wanting to “take it all in”. Faced with such abundance, most people act like contestants on the old game show Supermarket Sweep, grabbing as much as they can in what little time they have. A curator at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art found that people looked at individual paintings for 17 seconds each on average. Researcher Stephen Bitgood notes that we ruthlessly try to “maximise utility” in museums; people, for instance, won’t walk back to an area that they’ve already seen.

Play to the gallery: Try enjoying a game on your next museum visit

A recent spell touring several artistic treasure houses in Europe had me thinking about how to experience museums in the most engaging and pleasurable way. The first step is to admit that you won’t see anything remotely approaching the full collection – nor should you try. In his book All the Beauty in the World, former museum guard Patrick Bringley notes, “If you think of The Met’s Old Master wing as a village, it has almost 9,000 painted inhabitants.” Why would you think that you could get to know more than the tiniest fraction in a day?

Rather than a one-and-done “bucket-list” experience, museums should be treated like gyms for the mind and body, more than the soul – places that you regularly return to for upkeep. When I lived in Madrid, I would duck into the Museo del Prado (then free to enter) between appointments to look at two or three paintings (often Velázquez’s bewitching masterwork, “Las Meninas”), then return to the outside world, my mind at once activated and stilled.
 
But if you find your attention or spirit flagging, there are games to play. I tend to enter a room and sit. As museum expert Kenneth Hudson once asked, “Don’t we generally take things in better sitting down?” I will glance around the room, choosing one painting that calls to me. Without looking at the wall text, I’ll try to understand as much as I can about it – who painted it, the period, what the title might be. Then I’ll compare my guesswork with the curator’s information. Alternatively, economist Tyler Cowen has another strategy. “When you go through each room, ask yourself which picture you would take home (if you could take just one) and why,” he says. “This forces you to keep thinking critically about what you are seeing.”
 
More important than what to see is what not to see. Rather than grimly trying to absorb everything in a slog of appreciation, allow yourself the freedom to bypass works, even entire collections, until your level of interest has risen. Always leave yourself wanting more orange.

From August 7 Monocle Minute e-newsletter.

Image courtesy Bill Reynolds Which exhibit wall do you choose to wander down?

Quandary: How do we give people permission to slow down and feel it is ok to see highlights pertinent to them, and provide opportunities to return (not only physically).  If museums were free to visit this compulsion to see it all at one time would be alleviated. If you bought a multiday/ weekly pass at a reasonable price that would curtail the urge to time splurge all in one day too, perhaps. Visitor type plays in here because if you are not a resident you do not have the option to easily return.

It seems to me that your visit time should relate to the price paid. If you want a short gallery hit or want to see something specific then a full day admission should be discounted. How about a timed ticket upon entry and you pay on the way out based on when you leave? Any bluesky ideas out there you want to share?

In addition, interpreters should provide more self-guided, time-viable options for visitors to choose from, based on various adventurous ways to link artwork across genres, countries, and chronologies. Pathways would be mapped out for visitors that they could follow, and if they get sidetracked so be it, but they are starting with a framework of their choosing.

One organizing way could be a range of artists’ response to certain emotions or states of mind or life situations. How about a riff on “A rose is a rose is a rose…” is it if seen through various different eyes? Substitute rose for a variety of other items. How about artistic perspectives on motherhood or fatherhood  or …?

“I scratch your back-You scratch mine”

Do you like being a voyeur into a mini-mystery world? Well that is what one of the galleries at the Museo de la Biodiversidad in Panama City invited you to be. They decided to abandon the normal static/stand alone display of specimens but decided to expose the visitor to a dynamic presentation. How? By designing plant-animal interactions that visitors would walk around & among.

The use of highly crafted and colourful magnified versions of flora and fauna above and below the visitor created an immersive surroundscape. This gave you the sense of being a spy into some inner natural worlds common to the Panamanian forest, a la “Honey I Shrunk the Kids” movie perspective. This Panamanian portrayal went another level and so far beyond a traditional laying out of specimens based on habitat or classification.

Image courtesy Bill Reynolds Do you see the hummingbird mega model?

A typical diorama approach to the visitor is mildly engaging, if the scenography has been well designed and there is some fun associated with finding the various specimens. However this static approach could attain so much more than superficial, enjoyment -level outcomes. Museo Biodiversidad decided to present natural interactions among living beings, allowing them to accomplish so much more.

Each of the dramatic scenes chosen demonstrated the intimate interrelationships between creatures and how they are dependent on each other for mutual benefit (my title scratch concept). Life has many examples of partnerships and collaboration -it is not all one big competition and survival at someone else’s expense. Not a bad underlying lesson for all exhibits going forward.

Each scene was a story in 3 dimensions- a great model to emulate. Because of that design choice the scenes pulled you in to the unfolding natural drama and you wanted to read the labels to discover what was going on in these action- oriented scenes.

One example of the many symbiotic dependencies dealt with the giant model fig tree fruits and combined with a circular display on the floor it succinctly explained how hummingbirds, bats, wasps and snakes all interacted with these fruits in amazingly different ways.

Image courtesy Bill Reynolds Cut away view of fig tree fruit nursery for wasps

image courtesy Bill Reynolds Giant floor “label” explaining the overhead fig fruit cutaway

Mega-models of termite mounds and their parrakeet partners, along with supersized bromeliad nurseries for dragonfly larvae and frog tadpoles, both illustrated similar principles of interdependency. These were enhanced by audio clips that extended the catchy titles they used to summarize the species interplay. The next image illustrates the ant wasp collaborative interaction titled “Neighbourhood Watch.”

In the hall about prehistoric animals and the land bridge created by the geological formation of Panama there was a conscious decision again about immersion among specimens to break down the barriers of the visitor spectating in a removed and separated way. A monumental arch effect using the beasts of the past, created the concept of land bridge.

Image courtesy Bill Reynolds Predator prey immersion while visitor is IN the display

This is not to say that you need colossal effects (they sure can help), to impact the visitor experience. However, a magnified introduction into the fascinating mini-worlds of one’s immediate environment that illustrates interactions can. The added bonus is to demonstrate collaboration and mutually beneficial relationships as an underlying positive message.

Exposing visitors to new perspectives in an up close and personal way, can grab attention. This can work inside an exhibit hall and outside on the trail.

In another hall, they chose to physically divide the two sides into Pacific habitat and Atlantic habitat to mimic the land effect of Panama and it was a very effective way to organize the information. The representative aquaria tanks demonstrated clearly the key differences between them, especially when paired with the text highlights.

The accompanying large, colourful visual screen graphics about ocean life had short and sweet, intriguing, levelled messages. The master panel had five Big Message choices (see buttons at top left of first image) which you chose to learn more about. In my example here, coral reef diversity breaks down further into 3 buttons to choose on the screen (e.g. small tides). This states a very clear fact. The head outcomes are very clear for this exhibit.

There is a similar approach to the Pacific side -almost a counterbalance of facts- evident as you can see with the next master screen representing the Pacific. Both sides organized their data messaging in a mirror format. The first master choice I have shown for the Pacific is from a physical feature perspective (note “large tides”), in counterpoint to the Caribbean example, and the second image following for the Pacific shows a fish biological feature contrasting perspective (e.g. fewer colours). The Caribbean contrast screen would indicate “abundance of colours.”

Image courtesy Bill Reynolds Physical features for Pacific

Image Courtesy Bill Reynolds Fish biological features

They always ended each message cascade with present environmental issue alert combined with relevant action you could do at home to protect biodiversity and conserve habitat. They had a natural flow to them and never sounded preachy, just practical. They were also summarized on a large text panel (see image).

Image courtesy Bill Reynolds

Image courtesy Bill Reynolds Get Worried Get Busy Get Together

The choice of colours (lack of), no interesting images and text blocks all work to not draw you in. For those who do read this it would have been more effective to have a donation box close by tied to what the Museo is doing to actively protect the reefs. The image attached shows the donation box in the outdoor plaza albeit with a semi-catchy phrase.

Image courtesy Bill Reynolds Donation box

Bonus: Upon entering the café there was an extra biodiversity reinforcement. They had consciously used a surface that has high visual traffic to do a intense animal wrap on their fridge doors acting as a backdrop to the order counter.

We, at EID, love to see these design enhancements that subtly remind you about the institutional mission. In previous blog posts we have covered quite an array from bathroom walls to stairs to benches to floors to elevator doors but refrigerator doors is a first.

Drop us a line if you would be interested in a webinar on this topic -we have a wealth of examples to stimulate your creative juices.

On the whole Museo de la Biodivsersidad was a very impressive attraction and extremely well attended on the day we were there with a notably higher proportion of young adolescents than I have found to be normal museum fare. The appeal factor was highly evident demonstrating extended engagement.

Image Courtesy Bill Reynolds Museo de la Biodiversidad- designed by starchitect Frank Gehry

Pawsitive Partnerships

Just happened to be going through some pre-Covid articles in the National Association of Interpretation’s Legacy magazine and I ran across one titled Sit, Stay, Conserve - helping dogs and their humans protect natural areas. Immediately I was intrigued!

I had just come back from walking in a favourite local natural area where I had encountered many “dog walkers.” I have never “owned” a dog but really like them and have dogsat for friends. On this occasion, there were several instances of dogs on leash and not on leash and they were all well -behaved, which is not always the case.

Courtesy Bill Reynolds

I have been accosted before, as in suffering an unwelcome and intrusive approach, by large dogs unleashed and by leashed large dogs, not under control by their owner. I have had to deal with loud and aggressive barking on the trail aimed in my direction. Even cute overexuberant dogs excited to jam their nose into my crotch has been experienced.

You may or may not have had to deal with similar situations, but we need to minimize these types of occurrences for everyone’s benefit. There are even many people on the dislike dog side of the spectrum who have a low tolerance for dog interactions. I have overheard them mention- “why don’t they go to the dog park.”

That’s why I was so interested to read about how they were attempting to attain all visitors with and without dogs enjoying together a “space of solace.” That’s one way the public engagement authors AJ Chlebnik and Charlotte Norville described an outcome. Full credit to them for some clever sub- headings like the one that follows and the one “pawsitive partnerships” I pilfered for the blog title.

It was the caring attitude approach versus enforcement techniques that caught my eye in the sub-heading: Who Helps the Dogs Out? {who-who-who-who}.

It is not just human -dog interactions but also stressful dog-dog negative interactions and dog-wildlife interactions, that we need to be concerned about and manage. Right? It is about reducing the impact dogs are having on the visitor experience, as well as on wildlife, and on ecosystem health! At the same time, it is about how we improve the nature experience for these ever - expanding number of visitors with dogs?

To a certain degree the existing approach has been dominated by a no dogs policy which amounts to banning these visitors, or a leash policy that is just waiting to be violated.

Courtesy Bill Reynolds Conversational rule awareness

What I have noticed over the last few years has been a significant increase in people visiting natural areas with their dogs. It appears that if you don’t have a dog, you don’t have a reason to go outside and reconnect with the natural cycles of life.

Dogs are the motivating influence we need to capitalize on. This article spoke to me about setting all visitors (even canine ones) on the proper path to issue resolution. What stood apart was this park’s understanding of behaviour training requirements and the proactive undertaking of its implementation.

They decided to embrace this visitor type. I am often surprised when I see a lone individual or “couple” or family WITHOUT a dog these days-they are the minority.

That is why the Legacy article leaped out at me, like a hyped-up, hormone-infused male dog. It was going to talk about co-existing with, not banishing dogs and their owners. Several times when I have talked to dog walkers, I am hearing people say that they would not be outside nearly as often if it was not because of their dog. This appears to be a growing phenomenon and if we want people to enjoy natural areas more and to want to protect them, then we better make their experience with fido and for others they meet, a good one.

The article by Public Engagement Specialists, AJ Chlebnik and Charlotte Norville working for Fort Collins, Colorado Natural Areas Department, explained about two programmes they implemented -one to reach visitors before they came to the park and one to reach them on the trail.

courtesy Bill Reynolds The stats & scare approach

Dog-related regulation offences are one of the most frequently ticketed offenses in their natural areas. They created four videos that can be accessed from the trailhead on a mobile device or from a home computer. Each video was created with a different purpose, and each was designed to avoid “leashed resistance.”

#1 Introduction to Natural Areas with your Dog: why your dog is welcome and the benefits for you both.

#2 Dog Regulations: what are they and why are they good for your dog and the Natural Area?

#3 Trail Tips: dog behaviours for a successful trail buddy.

#4 Trail Hazards: how to prepare for and avoid harmful situations

This Trail Savvy Dog series was produced by a local dog trainer with the purpose of aiding owners and their dogs to have better outdoor adventures together.

The second approach, inspired by the National Park Service, was titled the BARK ranger communication campaign where BARK stood for:

Bag & carry pet waste

Always wear a leash

Respect wildlife

Know where you can go

Bark rangers are trained and certified volunteers who with their dogs serve as ambassadors promoting stewardship ethics and act as good dog behaviour role models on the trails. Extra leashes, poop bags and Bark pledge stickers are carried and supplemented by periodic materials being available at trailhead tables.

Courtesy Bill Reynolds Dogbone dreams

The benefits of this pawsitive programme need to be extolled far and wide as these dog- based interactions I am convinced are only going to increase. A little awareness of the benefits of behaviour training using an accessible format can open the dog door for natural area stewardship and expanded interpretive opportunities.

Analog “Doing” Secret Sauce

The Latest Exhibitricks blog post acts as a stimulator of ideas and as a reminder of excellent interpretive design strategies. Some of the highlights that I kept from two of last year’s posts are the instigators behind this present piece. Paul Orselli is the writer of the aforementioned blog and he has an exhibit design company that is proud to create engaging, educational & fun exhibits. Plus, he has a wealth of you tube podcasts, where he interviews leaders and innovators in the museum field. Check out his web site at POW! -short for Paul Orselli Workshop.

#1 Visitor Analog Decision Points

Paul unabashedly proclaims himself to be a big fan of the "old school" analog approach – when it comes to providing experiential choices for museum visitors. He likes to incorporate the devices used in board games (dice, spinners, flippers, carnival wheels, etc.). Why? With the rush to digital and AI, Paul reminds us to never forget that spinners or dice don't need to be plugged in. We probably don’t need to be reminded that low-tech items can be very durable while being easily maintained or replaced (biggest rationale!).

Accessibility needs to be on everyone’s mind and Paul states that users with low or no vision can still participate with "old school" game devices.” In addition, familiarity is a bonus as many of your visitors will already have a good sense of how a spinner or set of dice work.

His examples are exhibit related however the interactive concepts can be used in many a situation especially in an outreach context. I have provided my own examples in this regard.

courtesy google images

Paul mentions that watching a spinning carnival wheel to make a choice in an exhibition is inherently a more social experience than one person hunching over a touch screen. So true! I have used said carnival wheel in both an outdoor and indoor setting when we wanted to attract attention to our park information booth. Outside in a park picnic setting and in a display hall, it worked extremely well due to the highly visual, highly aural, and perpetual circular motion that happens. Our colour coded wheel had natural history, cultural history, and recreational topics as the wheel “of fortune” choices, which we adapted into a trivia game, where visitors spun the wheel.

Paul pointed out that having several people throw dice as part of an exhibit choice has a similar social effect plus there is a scalability advantage as such game elements that can also be used in a much larger scale to add fun. I was involved in a collaborative design project that employed this very concept, while encouraging multiple people to participate in playing a giant game.

We were challenged to create an interactive way to expand residents’ and park users’ knowledge about their existing and future trail system linkage that wound its way through a string of river valley parks connected by pedestrian bridges. The approach that had been taken up to then was talking to passers- by, while operating an outreach booth at events pointing to a mounted map and distributing map brochures.

We wanted all adult participants to feel they had:

·         fun learning something about the river valley that they didn’t know before

·         a better idea of the extent of the river valley park/trail system

·         increased their awareness of the River Valley Alliance and the municipal partnership involved

·         become more excited about future RVA connector projects

We enhanced this approach by creating a portable roll-up “game board” resembling a 40 x4 foot durable vinyl carpet with a graphically printed river valley park system on it. We invited people to be the game board pieces to play the River Valley Trivia Game and we used giant dice that they could roll (if they answered the questions correctly) and then they moved ahead by pacing out steps on the linear vinyl carpet.

We designed in special gamespots that involved winning prizes and lots of hoopla celebrations to draw in the crowd. All trivia questions were carefully chosen to allow for engaging awareness-building discussion. If you are interested in this concept, drop us an email as there were many operational lessons learned as well as some key map design details that were needed to be matched to well thought out objectives.

A great website boardgamegeek.com is referenced by Paul as it has this handy webpage that provides an alphabetical listing of online outlets that sell game pieces and related materials. 

#2 The Secret Sauce of Children’s Museums: Less Reading, More Doing

“The magic of Children's Museums isn't just about bright colors or simpler content—it's about active engagement.” “Children's Museums have mastered the art of making learning an immersive, hands-on adventure that visitors actually *want* to experience.“  Paul provides a few points on how to channel the Children’s Museum mojo:

·         Bring natural history dioramas to life by creating "science detective” stations where visitors use scientific tools to solve ecological mysteries tied to the actual locations featured in the dioramas.

Courtesy Bill Reynolds

The Royal Provincial Museum in Edmonton brought life to supplement the stuffed taxidermy specimens by incorporating a basket of grouse tail props you could tie around your waist. Visitors could then role play the mating dance. There was a video that helped one through the strutting dance motions and the arm movements to simulate the demonstrative process. I don’t think they had any props to replicate the inflated colour throat patches- that would have been a neat touch. A good idea none-the-less.

I often thought that if the role of habitat dioramas were to bring awareness to visitors about these special places and we want visitors to do something with what they have just experienced, then why not extend this awareness by providing visitors with directions to nearby locations, where they can experience this type of habitat in real life. Perhaps even run tours for visitors or make visitors aware of companies and associations that run field trips. If any of these habitats are dwindling and in need of conservation help, then bringing awareness of this and the groups that need funding for their stewardship work there, would be very beneficial.

·         Let visitors to historical sites “step into the story” by creating "decision points" where visitors face the same choices as historical figures.

Courtesy Bill Reynolds

Courtesy Bill Reynolds

I experienced this technique while walking through a travelling exhibit on the smallpox epidemic and it was very engaging where I read a personal story about a character, then when presented with certain life choices, I (the visitor) was given multiple choice options to pick from as to what I would have done in the character’s situation. Different choices led to different stories and further decision points.

Another example of providing opportunities for visitors to mentally engage and share their perspective i witnessed at The Canadian Human Rights Museum in Winnipeg. They had as part of their exhibit area, a sound proof booth where you could record your story if you so chose to do so.

Courtesy Bill Reynolds (apologies for flash glare)

·         Visitors to art galleries should be given chances to “create not just contemplate” by creating "inspiration stations" near notable works where visitors can try artistic techniques.

I have encountered this on occasion and it works only for uninhibited children, primarily because the stations have been left very open ended. To get older visitors involved, we must be better at inviting them in with more guided discovery to get started. I have an inkling that the takeaway objectives for such a “station” have never clearly been defined beyond an ambiguous “have visitor get beyond passive to active involvement.”

If we want to introduce techniques used in the painting being observed -now we are getting somewhere. I remember trying out sumi brush strokes in a workshop once (not in a gallery space - but why not?)  I now have a much greater appreciation for this technique -it would have been more impressive being done among the works themselves. Any ideas you have employed- please share?

In addition, these work areas need to be monitored regularly as too frequently I find “put together projects” finished so people pass by -they feel uncertain about taking them apart and starting over.

The image shows an example of a large format, complete wall designed to be interactive at the Mola Museum in Panama City. A wonderfully stimulating place where in this display, about design elements employed in the mola fabric making, it illustrates the issue being discussed. There were very few pieces left in the trays to try out on own. It appeared that visitors were not clear what to do and reluctant to move/remove items.

Participatory Display Monitors need to be vigilant or participatory elements will become underutilized.

A great idea trying to give visitors a chance to create cultural motifs by creating juxtaposing jigjag and parallel lines. They even included guided discovery notes on the side of the exhibit (abit too concentrated space wise, affecting its approachability).  If the wall had been partitioned in smaller work areas rather than one big space it could have been less overwhelming for an individual or couple to play around with. Was it designed for groups not drop-in visitors perhaps? They will still get in each other’s way. Do we need videos of acceptable behaviour modelling on how to approach and interact with the exhibit?

Thoughts, anyone? Do you have any situations like these that could use our input during a brainstorming exercise? We offer a one-time free introductory advisory service. Drop us a line.   

Visitor Experience Planning – From Cocktail Napkin to Community Engagement to Evaluation

(This second post by Marcella Wells for the EID Blog focuses on a planning tool developed by Marcella and her colleagues over the course of 12 years. At EID we like to emphasize Visitor Outcomes in the planning process and the model and tools presented in the book, Interpretive Planning For Museums, fit nicely with EID planning ideas. If you have questions for Marcella her contact information is at the end of this post.)

As with many intellectual endeavors, it started on a cocktail napkin while Barbara Butler and I were attending an annual meeting of the American Association for Botanical Garden and Arboreta (AABGA), now the American Public Gardens Association (APGA). After sessions ended one afternoon we sat at a table and scribbled down an entire word-salad of ideas including concepts such as benefits, visitors, outcomes, outputs, demand, impacts, learning, attitudes, market analysis, change, data, motivations, demographics, psychographics, experiences, etc. Soon thereafter, and for the next decade, this word-salad began to take shape as triangle. Hierarchical in nature, the model rapidly evolved. As we field-tested our ideas and talked with museum and visitor studies specialists, we adjusted the visual until it became the Outcomes Hierarchy as presented in our book entitled Interpretive Planning for Museums (Wells, Butler, Koke, 201: p55).

However, several things were the catalyst for this evolution, not the least of which was Stephen Weil’s piece entitled “Transformed from a Cemetery of Bric-a-Brac” published in the book Perspectives on Outcome Based Evaluation for Libraries and Museums (IMLS, 2000). Notably, at the turn of the 21st century, museums were increasingly transforming themselves from “Closets of Curiosity” into institutions of “Social Enterprise.” Now many museums recognize and embrace the notion that education is central to the purpose of museums, and the visitors, as primary audiences, should be the focus of careful planning, research and best practices.

A Few Modern Trends

Several other trends also helped steer the development and transformation of our Outcomes Hierarchy in its final form including:

·      GPRA:  The passage of the Government Performance and Results Act which refocused the attention of federal funding agencies (such as National Science Foundation, Institute of Museums and Library Services, National Association for the Arts, and others) toward enhanced accountability and learner/participant outcomes. 

·      Diversified Learning Landscape:  The paradigm of national education continued to change over time. STEM Learning, Teaching for 21st Century Skills, and KnowledgeWorks Institute all began to forecast what the future of education might look like. The learning landscape broadened to include all-age learning, as well as formal, non-formal and informal learning venues, and a spectrum of learning progressions. 

·      Leisure Choices:  Gradual increases in public discretionary time at the end of the 20th century began to change leisure choices in the 21st century. Extra leisure time stimulated public interest in museums alongside other leisure choices such as sporting events, outdoor recreation, and travel. 

·      Accountability:  Shrinking dollars and budgets left some museums vulnerable to spending cuts and political shifts. These shifts forced efficiency measures across institutions and cast bright light on the importance of demonstrated impact of museums. Arbitrary decision making was gradually cast aside in deference to intentional and deliberate planning and management. 

Therefore, our book is anchored in this era of reframing, where Museums transitioned from repositories of objects to institutions of public access, engagement, and learning. The Outcomes Hierarchy was developed to aid museums in their transformation toward learner-centric planning and evaluation.

Ways to Use the Outcomes Hierarchy

Over the years, the Outcomes Hierarchy has proven useful in a variety of ways, such as: 

·      As a Planning Tool for (a) building a shared vocabulary about visitor experiences, (b) demonstrating how visitor perspectives can be conceptualized throughout the planning process, and (c) anticipating how visitor studies might be employed.   

For example, a Visitor Experience Master Planning effort (2008-09) with the Royal British Columbia Museum of British Columbia, Canada, aimed at “renewing its relationship with visitors.” We worked with the Museum to complete a thorough current, hindsight, and future analysis of Tier 1 of the Outcomes Hierarchy (Audience Data & Information) so that subsequent planning efforts might strategically align with eventual programming. 

·      As a Communication Framework it can help integrate ideas from staff, visitors, and others and present desired outcomes to stakeholders and community leaders.   

For example, in a project with the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake, New York, the staff sought to (a) explore visitor awareness of a new branding and identity program, and (b) better understand visitor use and satisfaction with new orientation and way-showing initiatives. Tier 2 of the Outcomes Hierarchy (Outputs) was useful in defining and differentiating types of visitor engagements and Tier 3 provided discussions around desired outcomes that might be reasonably expected for visitor experiences. A variety of tools were subsequently used throughout the project, and the Outcomes Hierarchy served as a touchstone for keeping the project focused and results deliberately integrated into subsequent visitor experience planning. 

·      As a Funding Tool for organizing data and information related to investments in a project and desired impacts on the community, the discipline(s), and the institution. 

·      As a Research Tool for anticipating visitor experiences and guiding evaluation activities.

·      As a Data/Information Tool for training staff and others about evaluation strategies and techniques, as well as recording and discussing collective evidence about outcomes and impacts over time.

For example, in developing a 2015-16 Communication and Interpretive Plan for the Rocky Mountain Biological Lab (RMBL) in Gothic, Colorado, the goal was to enhance outreach to multiple audiences by strategically creating diverse learning opportunities for better engagements with the RMBL. The Outcomes Hierarchy became an important tool in the process of (a) using Tier 1 (Audience Data & Information) to better understand and discuss the variety of visitor information collected by RMBL over time, (b) deliberately establishing desirable outcomes for the various types of visitor engagements with RMBL using Tier 3 and 4 (Outcomes & Impacts), and (c) determining what visitor monitoring and feedback strategies might be best moving forward. 

Overall, the Outcomes Hierarchy is most useful as a touchstone for intentionally, and proactively, thinking about, discussing, and planning successful and meaningful visitor experiences. Furthermore, institutional attention to outcomes can provide evidence that demonstrates overall impact of museum experiences. 

More Important Than Ever – Museums and Community Engagement

More and more free-choice learning institutions are seeking concrete ways to illustrate how they contribute in a meaningful way to community and societal vitality and viability. A Carol Scott (2009: 70) quote from our book suggests, “The most important impacts of museums are the “intangibles”– the personal learning in a visual, hands-on, free-choice environment, the (personal) development perspective and insight, and the important experience of linking with the past. This is the language of impact and value emerging from the ‘heart and purpose’ of museums and the experience(s) they create.”

Considering visitor outcomes as part of integrating visitor perspectives in museum planning goes a long way toward demonstrating the overall value of museums. Borrowing again from Scott’s work (Scott 2009, 201-3), our book includes mention of her multiple Indicators of Museum Value including Use Value, Institutional Value, and Instrumental Value. In light of recent efforts by the Trump administration to defund many of America’s cultural institution (e.g. IMLS, NSF, NEA), concrete measures related to citizen learning, as well as museum’s contribution to local economies and societal sustainability, become even more important tasks for us to focus on.  

 (Marcella started professional life as a ballet dancer and ended as an evaluator. In between she worked as a travel agent, dance teacher and choreographer, environmental educator, interpretive planner, college professor, librarian, and polymer clay artist. Her 30-year career in visitor studies, interpretive planning, and as a college professor took her to 20+ states and three foreign countries for dozens of projects. Since 2015, Marcella has volunteered at the Avenir Museum of Design and Merchandising in Ft. Collins, Colorado working in the collection, guest-curating exhibits, and the Avenir Museum’s library. Her favorite spaces are libraries, thrifts stores, cemeteries, and Ponderosa pine forests. You can contact Marcella at marcellawells@comcast.net and her book is available from Taylor & Francis Group at www.taylorandfrancis.com or call 561-994-0555.)

Who's who- reaching the visitor

Who are the recipients of your site’s messages? How do you characterize those recipients? Does your present descriptive method assist you, so your interpretation is targeted and lands effectively on fertile ground?

The previous post “Ensuring Visits are meaningful” pointed out that who, what , and where are necessary dimensions to consider. We discussed the importance of deliberating on “where” one’s site message is best delivered to be meaningful. This post will touch on getting a better grasp on the “who,” in order to come closer to hitting the proverbial bulls eye of visitor meaningfulness. I have heard the “who” determination bandied about in many ways, but it often never gets beyond demographics, as in young adult couple, or family with 2 children under 10. Yet it is more important to grasp the various mindsets that visitors arrive with and understand the “language” they respond to.

courtesy Bill Reynolds Family Happiness

There are proven methods of capturing the interest of people and touching their minds and hearts, that have been researched and perfected over many decades. Many studies have defined the learning modalities, learning styles and learning types that people exhibit. They cut across gender, age, family dynamic, culture- all the traditional ways we are presented with to divide up our market or visitor. Consider the following as more helpful in order to communicate with (not market to) visitors:

Learning modalities are the ways in which our brain-mind systems are best stimulated. Learning styles are the way we best perceive experience or information, and our way of acting upon that. Styles are influenced by modalities. Learning types are separated based on what kind of information they perceive as reality. Here is a quick breakdown.

Labels vary, but there are 4 major modalities:

• visual,

• auditory,

• kinesthetic, and

• symbolic.

Understanding these shortcuts to stimulation helps you to categorize “the whos” based on how they receive information, learn and express themselves. Exciting the different mind- brain systems is key to ensuring visits will be meaningful.

Visuals need spatial perspectives, drawing, graphics, sculptures, mapping, etc.

Auditories need rhythmic patterns, speech, music, & song.

Kinesthetics need patterned movement, posturing, gesturing, dance, and physical action.

Symbolics need abstract connections like reading, writing, and arithmetic.

Visitors are usually a mix but also have a dominant style. Bottom line: we need to employ a range of communication approaches to capture all the “whos” out there.

Courtesy Anacostia Museum web site

People also show a brain hemisphere dominance -either left brain or right brain. Logical, linear, sequential thought is the left brain area whereas the right brain focuses on visual/spatial and emotional thoughts. Effective interpretation employs techniques aiming at stimulating both hemispheres. There is still too much emphasis on left brain stimulation especially in non-personal interpretation.

This is especially critical when you consider learning types. There are 4 basic types (again labels vary) :

• analytical

• innovative

• practical

• dynamic

Analytical types comprehend reality as based on facts and data, books and experts.

Innovative types perceive reality through personal life experiences and how “stuff” relates to them.

Practical types perceive reality as whatever works in real situations.

Dynamic types grasp reality based on what is experienced in the here and now, often employing creative intuition.

As interpreters we need to design for and speak these “languages” or we will never appeal to wide groups of visitors. The latter three types really emphasize the rationale for designing more interpretation that incorporates “doing” as part of the communication process. Frankly, that’s a strong reason why we, at EID, enjoy the book Interpretive Design the Dance of Experience by Steve Van Matre so much.

Courtesy Bill Reynolds Boardwalk buddies

The point of visitor engagement by stimulating action by the visitor is hammered home over and over and speaks to diverse learning styles. So, how can you be meaningful - by connecting with a range of modalities, styles and types.

Reaching a large percentage of your visitors means you need to use a diversity of techniques. In my experience, one of the best examples of incorporating a wide range of approaches like this is an experience designed by the Institute for Earth Education named an Earthwalk. For a great overview of this participatory way of sharing nature using sensory and visceral explorations, check out our April 2020 blog titled Earthwalks where the book is reviewed.

We know that visitors display a mix of brain-mind systems and EarthWalks an alternative nature experience book provides extensive guidelines on how to design and structure participation aimed at the wholistic ”who.”

Here are just a few hints to spark your creativity when trying to involve those non left brain visitors who traditionally avoid interpretive offerings :

• visual mode- get your visitor to look at familiar things in new ways (hands & knees, looking up, introduce a third eye)

• auditory mode - close eyes and focus listening

• kinesthetic mode - empathic movement, tactile comparisons

• symbolic mode - make up a story or song as a group

• right brain - fantasy and metaphor are gateways in

• left brain - do what we have always done

• innovative - sharing and social interaction

• analytic - seek out experts

• practical - try out and do things

• dynamic - express themselves and apply learnings

Courtesy Institute for Earth Education

Earthwalks employ structured fun and visitor interactions are designed for various reasons keeping in mind diverse brain-body needs. To design for different visitors’ perceptual preferences, the provision of props like “scent catchers” to enhance a visitor’s sense of smell or miniature artists’ palettes to aid them with discovering and sharing hidden colours, can help immensely. The use of blindfolds and bare feet for example, are not flippantly employed, but both are chosen explicitly for a purposeful sensory awareness focus. On a more mental engagement level, Earthwalks also aim to develop feelings of reverence, where time for contemplation and a chance to express thoughts with other visitors is designed in.

Many more points could be shared around this concept but I will leave you with the technique of role-playing as an example of addressing a mix of modes and styles. Animate objects are a natural however don’t ignore inanimate objects. While a visitor is actively looking and touching a glacial erratic boulder, an interpretive catalyst could pose, “I wonder how it would feel to be a rock at the bottom of a glacier?” If needed, one may have to have some follow up guiding comments or graphic actions to spur participants.

People think and sense from a comprehension, a meaning, a solutions or a possibilities standpoint. We need to design our communication to reflect the above 10 visitor brain dimensions and aim for more than only comprehension !

Courtesy Bill Reynolds how many modalities and styles ?

Inspect your trail signage, walk around your visitor centre or read your exhibit texts, then review what you are saying & showing ! Are you consciously reaching a range of visitor modalities, styles, and types? WHO are you talking to?

Engage us here at EID to do the above review. Start off by contacting us on an experimental basis - send us a video or a series of images and we’ll provide you with feedback on ways to connect with a wider range of visitors. It may just be the start of a beautiful relationship.

What have you got to lose?

A New Paradigm for Creating and Evaluating Interpretive Programs

(“Evaluate” is the final Dance Step in Van Matre’s book Interpretive Desgin and the Dance of Experience. It is important because we need some way of knowing if the experiences designed are achieving what they were designed to do. Nathan Taxel attended the EID webinar on a survey tool developed by our colleague Lars Wohlers, Visitor Track ‘N Time, and soon after we began a conversation about his passion for evaluation. What follows is how Nathan accomplished an evaluation at the Orange County, California Parks. We think this post is important because experiential evaluations is not the norm in the field of interpretation or environmental educations. Thanks Nathan…)

Photo Credit: Nathan Taxel

Since my career in interpretation began in the galleries of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History in the late aughts, I have been deeply curious about measuring the effectiveness of programs, activities, and exhibits.

And like many of us, that is not where I started. As a teen and young adult my focus was on activism and the undefined intent to turn environmental advocacy into a career. During an environmental education class towards the end of my undergraduate studies I had one of those classic “lightbulb” moments just weeks into the term. I instantly saw that meaningful educational experiences were the most effective way to make changes in the world without compromising my ideals.

In short, influencing behavior and changing attitudes is the main reason I entered the interpretive field in the first place. I also genuinely believe that effective interpretation of our communal history and landscape can play a role in healing the calcified and resentful sense of tribalism which grips much of my country, and the planet, today. I feel compelled to investigate what experiences make interpretation effective or ineffective.

Finding the Right Evaluation Tool

In pursuit of that goal, in 2022, I discovered the work of Dr. Myles Richardson and the Nature Connectedness Research Group (NCRG) at the University of Derby in the United Kingdom (UK). Their aim is “to understand people’s sense of their own relationship with the natural world” and “create everyday interventions in order to improve this relationship for the wellbeing of humans and nature.” In this paradigm Nature Connectedness is “a measurable psychological construct that moves beyond contact with nature to an individual’s sense of their relationship with the natural world.”

Using analytical psychology and quantitative population studies the NCRG has developed a methodology called “Nature Connection Science” which could revolutionize the design and evaluation of interpretive experiences. The field of interpretation has for some time understood the value of making connections between people and important heritage sites. What makes the Nature Connection Science model ground-breaking is that it can be a measurement tool for both large-scale population studies and small-scale evaluations of specific activities and experiences. It is a tool to measure the impact of our programs, activities, exhibits and media in real time.

The lofty goals of helping people and the Earth are accomplished by engaging with the NCRG’s “Five Pathway’s to Nature Connection.”  These include the following:

·      exploring and experiencing nature through all the senses (Senses),

·      seeking and appreciating the beauty of the natural world (Beauty),

·      noticing and welcoming the feelings nature inspires (Emotion),

·      celebrating and sharing nature’s events and stories (Meaning), and

·      caring for nature (Compassion).

The data the research group has gathered from large scale studies in the UK, as well as from dozens of additional studies by independent research groups around the world, indicates “there is clear evidence that contact and engagement with nature can increase nature connectedness, and that engaging in nature connection practices on a regular, daily, or weekly basis can lead to sustained increases in nature connection.”

Getting Started

The evidence the NCRG has gathered and the methodology they developed in the United Kingdom gives us a road map to determining how to effectively execute our missions and goals in a tangible AND measurable way, not to mention improve the quality of life for individuals and communities. Using the NCRG insights and methods plus a pre and post survey, we decided to measure the short term effectiveness of the “Restorative Bird Watching” experience offered by the Orange County (OC) Parks (California) to measure this activity’s impact on participant’s moods and self-identified connection to nature.

Photo Credit: Nathan Taxel

We chose bird watching as our entry point into nature connectedness because it is a very popular activity in the communities OC Parks serves and, more importantly, there is evidence that birds hold a particular space in our collective consciousness and provoke emotional responses in people even when they are not actively observing them. 

Photo Credit: Orange County Parks, California

The experience was a 2-hour guided walk held at a remote historic home and garden in rural Orange County, California. The site we chose, Arden: Helena Modjeska Historic House and Gardens, is on the national register of historic places and provides about 200 yards of flat well-groomed trails, manicured Victorian style gardens, shade, plenty of places to sit, a babbling brook, and an abundance of avian life. The setting was ideal for the atmosphere we were trying to create and likely a major contributor to the positive results from the pre and post surveys.

It was advertised as a slow paced and accessible walk which will offer practices to emphasize the positive mental health benefits of bird watching, connecting to nature through guided observation, sharing stories and community building, creativity, and practicing mindfulness. The program was offered once a month, in May, June, July, August, and September of 2023 and a total of 53 members of the public participated in the 5 sessions. The sessions were advertised online through program websites, monthly newsletters, social media (Facebook, X, and Instagram) and added to an event calendar managed by the Mindful Birding Network. Our big picture takeaway from the data was that negative emotions decreased and positive emotions increased after involvement in the experience.

Participant Details

Photo Credit: Nathan Taxel

Photo Credit: Nathan Taxel

After registering for “Restorative Bird Watching” online, participants were notified via email that data would be collected via pre and post program surveys. No details were provided about the survey questions. Upon arrival participants received a 2-sided document which included two different measurement tools. The first was the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) developed by Watson, Clark, and Tellegen in 1988 to measure mood changes. It is widely used in psychological research.

The reverse side of the sheet included an illustrated version of the Inclusion of Nature in Self (INS) Scale which was developed in 2021. The participants received a second copy of the same form at the end of the experience in order to measure any changes in mood or self-identified connection to nature. Our goal was to generate data which would corroborate or conflict with the results of other studies under similar conditions and to see if this experience activated a measurable change in attitude or mood in the participants.

The experience began with an OC Parks staff facilitator introducing the activity with statements of intent, gratitude, and a reading of the poem “Peace of the Wild Things” by Wendell Berry to set the mood. In a circle, everyone shared their “spark bird” – the bird that inspired a person to get more interested in birds and bird watching. The goal was to break the ice and have participants feel more comfortable sharing. Next the facilitator led a guided mindfulness exercise encouraging participants to connect with their surroundings and progressively focus on their body, senses, and the natural community around them.

Nathan Taxel “Spark” Bird; Photo Credit: Nathan Taxel

Participants slowly moved through the space observing birds, guided by prompts designed to inspire curiosity and reflection rather than identification. They explored bird behavior, sounds, and appearance, connecting their observations to personal memories and questions. This transitioned into a silent listening session to explore bird songs, followed by a reflective group discussion. Later, participants engaged in independent mindful observation, recording sensory details before interacting with nature.

Photo Credit: Nathan Taxel

The final exercise involved tracking a single bird, observing its behavior, and sharing insights about its beauty, actions, and needs. Small, organically formed group discussions fostered trust, community, and a deeper connection to both birds and each other. Observing these final interactions between participants reinforced our belief in the power of interpretive activities to build bonds and inspire shared learning.

The program concluded with a closing circle where participants were given a final opportunity to share stories, observations, and reactions to the activities they participated in. Statements of gratitude for the participants, the place, and the birds we observed were offered to end the experience.

Survey Results

The results of our pre and post program show small, but not insignificant, increases in positive emotions (12%) and decreases in negative emotions (18%) on the PANAS scale and a trend toward higher levels of nature connection on the illustrated INS metric. These results corroborate those of the international studies analyzed by the NCRG in their 2022 meta-analysis published in the journal Sustainability entitled “Improving Nature Connectedness in Adults: A Meta-Analysis, Review and Agenda.” By using the principles of nature connectedness to create an interpretive experience, we were able to successfully improve the mood and self-identified nature connectedness of most of our participants. This activity can serve as proof-of-concept for interpretive programs designed specifically to influence attitudes and behavior.

An experience like “Restorative Bird Watching” helps offer participants new techniques for exploring their relationships with nature, provides social validation of their interests, and has the potential to produce an important emotional impact on its participants. By teaching the skills of mindful birdwatching and doing so expressly with the intent of improving mood and mental health, participants are empowered to examine their emotions and connections to the Earth independently. We can all reap the benefits of more time spent outdoors in easily accessible and conventional outdoor settings such as backyards and local parks and by incorporating these mindfulness activities.

Social validation and community building are another reason that group activities like this can have longer term impacts than one might expect from a short-term intervention. The group learning experience validates the interests of the participants and gives them the opportunity to meet like-minded peers. Whether or not those peer connections extend beyond the activity, the impact of spending time in a space with like-minded individuals building care and empathy for the natural world is invaluable and may contribute to extending the benefit beyond the temporal limits.

As I mentioned in the beginning, knowing the effectiveness of our interpretive offerings is key to making a change in our participants and their relationship to the natural world and other heritage sites. Finding the right tool to measure whether your activity is doing the intended job is important. Gathering more information from evaluations and sharing them with others will help all of us in the field determine if interpretive programming is working or not. Further investigation will give us a better understanding of how activities like this can impact our communities and help organizations and agencies achieve their goals.

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Copyright (c) 2012 by Wendell Berry

(Nathan Taxel is the Interpretive Programs Curator for OC Parks in Orange County, California, where he oversees the interpretive program for a 60,000-acre regional and wilderness park system. He is also an associate faculty member in the Environmental Studies Department at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, CA and was recently elected to National Association for Interpretation's Board of Directors. He earned a master’s degree in Parks and Natural Resource Management and a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Environmental Studies. Nathan lives in Irvine, Ca with his wife and two small children and is an avid amateur photographer and bird watcher. If you would like a more information on the survey questions and results please contact Nathan at nathan.taxel@ocparks.com/ 657-322-3680.

Consuming with our Eyes Open or Closed

“My species has the audacity to wage war against a biosphere that offers us life.”

“We cannot care for ecosystems without recognizing that we will always rely on them and we will always tax them… that human life will always come at a cost. We cannot choose if we will impact ecosystems, if we will impact people across the earth, if we will impact the lives of future generations. We can only choose what that impact will be.”

“The world is being degraded by those who do too much and those who do nothing.”

Some hard hitting material from author Ethan Tapper - a new breed of forester. It has been quite awhile since we focused and presented a quick survey of a book that is worthy of a read. How to Love a Forest by Ethan Tapper was one of my Christmas reads and it warranted a shoutout. Even if forests are not part of your interpretive heritage job, you owe it to yourself and the planet to read this book. And if forests are part of your bailiwick then it is a must read.

The basis of the book is proposing a new radical and responsible, relationship- based, land ethic -“a vision of freedom and power, resilience and humility, legacy, beauty and change.” People have the power and freedom to choose what that relationship and responsibility looks like. The visitors to our heritage sites, that we connect with, need to be exposed to (perhaps reminded of) many of the well expressed points that Ethan Tapper presents.

I especially found the chapter on humility powerful. Ethan mentions how it takes humility to admit that we are dependent on so many things that our incredible technology cannot replace or control. “Even as we infiltrate and alter every natural community on earth, we remain reliant on ecosystems for the air we breathe , the water we drink, the food we eat and the delicate climate we inhabit. We remain tethered to ecosystems.”

Humility is: understanding that grasping the entirety of ecosystems is still beyond our knowledge base. The author expresses it beautifully when contemplating an eroding cliff face that is becoming “something new, one thing becoming two, becoming many. (One) … could parse the biological communities woven around the cliff, all the organisms to whom the cliff is habitat, all the creatures whose breath, in winter, forms delicate ice crystals in the gaps of the rocks. Still the unearthing of every secret, and full expression of the cliff would elude us.”

One of many excellent pieces of prose is the following one that I suggest should handed out or be “placed” in some prominent position (over the visitor entrance door or desk) to ensure every visitor reads or hears it, in every park setting and every natural history museum, and botanic garden.

“…like this tree, I am a wild thing- a product of the biosphere, the thin veneer of life that surrounds this planet. Like every living thing I cannot exist without forests, without carbon pulled from the atmosphere by green leaves giving my body the ability to breathe and to move, without water, without soil, without oxygen exhaled by plants. … oxygen is a gift given freely by the green life of the biosphere, a vital and invaluable resource produced by ecosystems that ask nothing more than to be allowed to exist.”

His perspective on forestry especially is very enlightening. Loggers are not evil for taking trees from the forest but, “they were wrong for the way they took them: for failing to honour the value and the beauty of the forest, for failing to take the responsibility for the legacies that they left in their wake.” As a forester, he now sees himself not as a caretaker of trees but caretaker of the forest community.

“Beneath the legacies of human negligence and ignorance and greed , I caught glimpses of a world of promise.”

The author is quite clear that loving deer and hunting deer, loving trees and felling trees—can be radical expressions of a bigger picture community compassion. You need to delve into his writing to discover why he says, for example, that the cutting of a tree could be “an expression of compassion and humility, an act of healing, an act of love, that management could be restorative and regenerative.” He has realized that the management of a forest along the commodity path or “leave it alone” path are not the only options.

He expresses the benefit of leaving naturally decaying trees in place very effectively. The following is just one snippet: “As a tree’s biological life fades, its ecological life persists-a feast for other creatures. Countless lives will be born from her. As the tree decays, it will be decentralized, becoming a cooperative of millions of tiny things, the foundation of a complex and precious living community.”

I learned a new word from Ethan -necrosphere- he introduced me to a new ecological term for “the midwives of mortality responsible for the profound and beautiful process of tree death- the bacteria, the fungi, the boring and defoliating insect community of death - guide trees toward the end of their lives.” Ethan shares life lessons through the lens of observing natural processes: “thousands of tiny creatures are hard at work turning these scaffolds of cellulose and lignin into soil that will nourish the forest of the future. Today a community of living things is building something beautiful for whomever/whatever will follow.”

Forests are more than timber and fibre and a crop to be quickly and efficiently harvested without regard for the future. To remove the messy necrosphere and complex dynamic diversity,  forest engineers unknowingly undermined (and many still are undermining) the forests’ resilience, vibrancy and health.

The author stresses that forest benefits are not luxuries but necessities providing renewable resources that are key to ecological, cultural and socio-economic human foundations as well as providing fundamental freedoms of existence. These benefits belong to all living things and to generations of future children.

With individual freedom one could “develop “ a forest- fragment it with houses, driveways, and lawns, mine its gravel and overexploit its timber as a source of wealth and power for one family for generations. Destroying a forest – means an ecosystem that had and could have enriched and sustained the lives of thousands of people and trillions of organisms for centuries - no longer can. These kind of choices “undermine the resilience, the self-reliance and the freedom of countless others.” **

Ecosystems have coevolved over millenia having formed elaborate physical, chemical and behavioural traits, helping them to coexist in dynamic equilibrium. At the same time this makes them unique, and vulnerable to invasive species, especially when challenged by human disruption that has fragmented, altered and climate change impacted their communities. If you are dealing with the problem of invasives at your site, you need to read his perspective.

At this moment in time when many espouse their desire to attain freedom of choice, Ethan also brings forward the necessary concept of responsibility that goes with that. His legacy chapter, about the US Vermont state where he lives, lays it out plainly: “Like the first people, the new people of the valley sustained themselves on the riches of the ecosystems. Unlike the first peoples, the new people viewed the ecosystems of the valley as things to be conquered and subjugated, mined for personal wealth.

Unlike the first people, they cleared the ancient forests, drained the wetlands, straightened the rivers, hunted the wildlife to extinction. Breathing earth’s air and drinking earth’s water, they farmed the rich soils, their crops pollinated by wild insects, sustained by the soil organism communities, and watered by the clouds seeded by trees. They built a complex society over the land, where development creep with ecosystem exploitation and destruction produced remnants of ecosystems, lying like carcasses by the sides of the road. People cannot choose the legacies they inherit only what they would make of them.”

He states clearly that everywhere, people continue to use their power to exploit ecosystems and to seek their own freedom at the expense of their children’s. Their actions are shrinking the biosphere, effecting the functioning of those ecosystems as well as the living conditions of other people in the world. Our lives will always come at a cost = we will always need energy, food and shelter. We have the free choice to consume with our eyes open or closed. Our job is to open more eyes.

The author talks about the present issue with people who see freedom as something to be taken away rather than something to be shared. I believe this is a concept worth discussing with visitors. “They (people) have been told that the only measures of their success are the riches they take for themselves: the wealth and power, the happiness and the freedom they can mine from this living world. Each believes they are independent racing against the others, grasping for individual freedom.” The author discusses the connections that have been forgotten.

“Each person holds a tiny piece of power: the freedom to destroy ecosystems or protect them, to destroy or protect each other” Just like trees, our roots are intertwined.  Interpretive centres could initiate discussions around the concept of freedom, and interrelationships including their meaning and impact on all forms of “communities”.

Ethan pleads with the reader that we can either allow this biosphere - our home - to sink further into dysfunction and disarray or we can make (and assist others to make) the radical and bittersweet decisions necessary to choose a different path. The inconvenient and the uncomfortable decisions need to be wrestled with at our interpretive centres.

I will leave you with two of his thoughts:

“I believe that this forest, its creatures, its patterns and processes, its relationships and connection, has intrinsic value - the right to exist.”

 “I see a better world as one where humans are actors, not bystanders, where we are brave and humble and imbued with responsibility.”

** ( Ethan unravels a biting analogy that I could not resist sharing)

“Like invasive plants by the highway, the chain and box stores rise from the asphalt to outcompete local businesses, extracting profits that enrich distant executives and shareholders, dominating the landscape-smothering its uniqueness, replacing diversity, and complexity with instable, sterile monoculture.” (but don’t forget they provide “low-paying jobs for local people stocking shelves with cheap products subsidized by the suffering of people, species and ecosystems somewhere far away where less stringent environmental regulations, human rights laws and labour laws exist).

Notes on Interpretive Planning for a Museum Exhibit

(We decided to end 2024 with some insightful thoughts on museum planning from Marcella Wells. Marcella’s book, Interpretive Planning for Museums, came highly recommended from our colleague Lars Wohlers. Mike read it and was impressed with its directness, its insights, and its focus on implementatin as well as planning. This is the first of two posts Marcella will be writing for us. A very happy holidays to everyone and a joyous 2025 from Bill, Mike and Lars.)

For many, Interpretive Planning is equivalent to doing math homework - easy to put off, but difficult when it’s time to take the test. 

Photo Credit: Marcella Wells

 In our book Interpretive Planning for Museums (Wells, Butler, and Koke. 2013), we offer a rather academic definition of interpretive planning as “a deliberate and systematic process for thinking about, deciding on, and recording in a written format or plan, education and interpretive initiatives for the purpose of facilitating meaningful and effective experiences for visitors, learning institutions, and communities.” 

In plain language, the most important parts of this definition are:

·      Is it written down? … think about a tangible working document

·      Why are we doing this project? … think overall institutional mission and goals

·      Who is it for? … think audience segments and desired experiences

·      What is it about? … think objects (for museums) as well as concepts and stories

·      What should we care about… think desired visitor outcomes

·      How do we get there? … think logistics, fabrication, installation

·      How will we know it worked?... think visitor studies

In general, there are basically two types of interpretive planning,

1.     Exhibit or Program Planning which is focused and project-specific

2.     Interpretive Master Planning which is broader and institution-specific

This post focuses on the former type and features a recent exhibition at the Avenir Museum of Design and Merchandising in Fort Collins, Colorado, part of Colorado State University (CSU), that exemplifies some of the features of exhibit planning. This is not meant as an exhaustive discussion of interpretive planning but rather one example of how to think about the process of interpretive planning.

Photo Credit: Website - Avenir Museum of Design & Merchandising, Front Entrance, Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, Colorado

Is it written down? (tangible working reference document)

A great deal of interpretive planning is done on the fly, jotted down on the back of a cocktail napkin, or accomplished in the lunchroom while talking with colleagues. Sometimes those intentions get translated to paper; other times perhaps not. A written plan, however, serves several purposes. First, it captures in one place the ‘group think’ about a project so there is less confusion about what has been agreed upon. Second, it records the sequencing of a project over time as ideas are added, removed, or reframed. Finally, it serves as a tangible ‘note for the record’ giving the institution an historical record of accomplishments…and serving as an administrative (and even legal) record for later reference and accountability.  

Why are we doing this project? (mission and goals)

For informal learning organizations and institutions (museums, parks, nature centers, zoos, etc.) interpretive planning includes nesting the project within the mission and ensuring that it is consistent with broad institutional goals. For the Avenir, their mission is to: “tell stories of dress and textiles that inspire respectful curiosity and connection across people, places and cultures”. The Museum has three galleries and a collection of nearly 20,000 objects. Rotating exhibitions are developed throughout the year in all three galleries. In 2024, Curator Paula Alaszkiewicz, set forth an exhibit goal for the main gallery: to demonstrate the depth and breadth of the Museum’s collection of tie dye objects across techniques, places, and time. Tie dyeing is also referred to as ‘resist dyeing’ for the artistic process of using wax to resist the absorption of dyes in fiber and textile pieces. 

Who is it for? (audience)

Being a university museum, the Avenir’s primary visitors are the scholars and students at CSU, but the Museum actively welcomes community and regional visitors who come as individuals, couples, and groups. Visitors are of all ages, races, genders, and affinity groups. Desired experiences for the Museum are as diverse as these audience segments. For example, college students seek opportunities to explore more about their chosen vocation and/or show others (friends, family members, guests) the unique aspects of a nationally recognized university museum. Families seek opportunities to show their children beautiful, rare, historic, and unusual fashion and textile objects. Regional visitors are often interested in a new and unique tourist adventure. The exhibit experience highlighted in this post provided all of the above and along with other objects to view, narratives to read, questions to answer, and ancillary program experiences based on the exhibit content (e.g., hands-on experience of tie dyeing, learning how to wrap a sari, and so forth).   

What is it about? (objects, concepts, stories)

A number of items from the diverse collection of tie dye and resist objects in the collection were selected to meet the teaching, research, and service goals of the Museum. The exhibit was eventually titled: Resist: Tie Dye Practices from Around the World. Objects were selected to best feature stories about (a) diverse tie dye techniques (e.g. Indian Bandhani, Japanese Shibori, Uzbekistan Abr, Yoruba Adire, and Euro-American DYI), (b) tie dye as both a global endeavor and an historic record, and (c) exemplary examples of diverse artistry, creativity and construction. 

What should we care about? (desired visitor outcomes)

Describing visitor outcomes during the planning process is highly desirable but all too often neglected. Outcomes state what visitors might do, think, or feel as a result of their experience in the exhibit. Several of the anticipated outcomes for the Resist Exhibit included: 

·      Visitors will express amazement at the incredible global diversity of tie-dye techniques throughout history. 

·      Visitors will spend time viewing the tie-dye/resist techniques used to create unusual patterns.

·      Visitors will connect some personal relevance to today’s modern tie dye.

·      Visitors will appreciate the complexity of Ikat as a specific unique form of Resist dyeing.

·      Visitors will share their enthusiasm for the exhibit content and displays with others.

Developing visitor outcomes during planning is important for guiding decisions about visitor experiences, and later, for evaluating the impact, reach, and success of the exhibition.     

How do we get there? (logistics)

In addressing this practical planning question, the Avenir staff tested a variety of formats and flow options using a scale model of the large open-plan gallery. This flexible model allowed staff several options for re-arranging walls and cases, and to consider a variety of display methods (slant boards, pedestals, hangings, etc.). Ultimately, a layout was selected which maximized visual appeal while also providing several paths for visitor explorations within the exhibit space.

Map Photo Credit: Avenir Museum of Design and Merchandising

For example, the curator positioned a world map at the entry of the exhibit to help visitors grasp the geographic scope of the exhibit content.

Open Gallery Exhibit Design Photo Credit: Avenir Museum of Design and Merchandising

The curator also positioned the walls and cases such that visitors would not have an “all-at-once” view of the exhibit. Rather, the overall configuration encouraged visitors to explore the space more deliberately based on personal interest. Questions posed in the introduction panel were used to intellectually pull visitors through the various zones or sections of the exhibition.

Icon Photo Credit: Avenir Museum of Design and Merchandising

As well, iconic pieces were placed strategically around the gallery so visitors might experience powerful ‘discovery’ moments. Throughout the exhibition multiple levels of interpretation were planned so that visitors could self-select their preferred method of inquiry for each of the exhibit areas. These included panel text at each major zone, in-depth text guides (printed or QR Code access), and individual object labels. 

Printed Sari Photo Credit: Avenir Museum of Design and Merchandising

Finally, the curator incorporated a number of ‘bridge elements’ to link the various exhibit zones together. For example, objects in the exhibit included both dyed and printed fabric. In order to bridge these concepts, iconic objects such as the ‘printed’ Sari shown above was used to bridge from a ‘dyed’ Japanese kimono below. This strategy aimed to help the visitors make the intellectual transition from objects that were resist-dyed to those which were printed to simply resemble resist-dyed techniques.

Japanese Dyed Kimono - Shibori Technique Photo Credit: Avenir Museum of Design and Merchandising

How do we know it worked? (evaluation)

The wonderful thing about planning is that if you intentionally record your process as you go, then capturing information about impact and success is much easier. The Visitor Studies toolbox is wide and deep and so the lean staff of six worked diligently to integrate some level of visitor studies into their interpretive planning efforts. Depending on the size and scope of other exhibits, this Museum sometimes employs Timing & Tracking, simple surveys, and Post-it evaluations in the gallery.

For this exhibition, the Museum used visitor counts and recorded staff observations including frequently asked questions and average time spent in the exhibition. In the final analysis, these data indicated that visitors were “awed” at the intricacies of the bandhani and shibori dyeing techniques, they were “surprised” at the deep history and broad geography of resist dyeing techniques, and they “appreciated” the novel topic of the exhibition. 

Takeaway

Planning is essential for successful, impactful, and enduring visitor experiences. Today’s museums are but one venue in the vast learning landscape and leisure time opportunities of our communities and country. If we are to be effective storytellers for the 21st century, interpretive planning at all sites should be intentional, visitor-centric, and documented (written down and preserved for future reference). I invite you to visit the diagrams, examples, and tips in our book for more ideas about integrating visitor perspectives in your decision-making. And if you are ever in Ft. Colins, please take some time to view the beautiful fabrics on display at the Avenir Museum.

(Marcella started professional life as a ballet dancer and ended as an evaluator. In between she worked as a travel agent, dance teacher and choreographer, environmental educator, interpretive planner, college professor, librarian, and polymer clay artist. Her 30-year career in visitor studies, interpretive planning, and as a college professor took her to 20+ states and three foreign countries for dozens of projects. Since 2015, Marcella has volunteered at the Avenir Museum of Design and Merchandising working in collections, guest-curating exhibits, and the Avenir Museum’s library. Her favorite spaces are libraries, thrifts stores, cemeteries, and Ponderosa pine forests. You can contact Marcella at marcellawells@comcast.net and her book is available from Taylor & Francis Group in Florida, or call 561-994-0555.)

A Game and A Collectible

Playing games is a fairly universal pastime as a way to learn, enjoy leisure time, engage in social interaction, dabble in challenge and risk, and fulfill a competitive urge or support collaborative tendencies. Wow, what a checklist for a successful interpretive offering.

I have used the term playing games and not gaming as it has a connection to the technological animated video age, which I am not going to address. A recent visit to Palm Springs Art Museum sparked the initiation for this post.  I was invited to play BINGO while wandering the gallery and this piqued my interest. Well, actually, I don’t quite remember if I was invited or if I begged to have a card because they were being preferentially targeted at families and not solo adults. I was just indulging my childlike curiosity and enthusiasm for games.  I don’t as a habit go to bingo parlours waiting passively for cascading balls to singly emerge, then have the inscribed contents of their numerical surfaces bellowed out to me, so I can stamp a corresponding numbered space on a card.

This bingo card was different and had a visually active component more like the school bus game that is given to students on their way to your site, that combines the classic I Spy game of yore. The use of trigger words in spaces on a card is an attempt to encourage participants to look at their surroundings and record affirmatively whether they have spotted certain objects in their environment. If done well as a collaborative exercise, this could be a collective building of anticipation to visiting any centre. I have often thought this game technique could have many uses and that the choices of what are being asked to look for could be less random and more strategically related to site mission or exhibit outcomes.

Image courtesy Bill Reynolds

How did the Palm Springs Art Museum utilize this classic game? Obviously, they used pictures of artworks on display instead of numbers or words in the card spaces.  Minimally, I assumed that the objective was to encourage exploration and expose the visitor to a wide range of objects by having them search for specific items as part of a task completion. I did not ask what the desired visitor outcomes were – I wanted to play the game.

However, I could not help conjuring up some questions related to why they chose, what they chose, for the images on the bingo card;

·         Was it to encourage visits to all levels and each gallery space? The images would have had been chosen from all the floors.

·         Was it to demonstrate a wide breadth of subject matter? The images would have been chosen to show portraits, sculptures, mixed media, pottery, etc.

·         Was it to illustrate different surface textures? The images would have been chosen to represent metal, wooden, glass, ceramic, etc. 

·         Was it to stimulate interest in certain pieces so the visitor could ask specifically about any item they were very intrigued with and wanted to know its location? The images would have been chosen to represent iconic must see works.

image courtesy Bill Reynolds

·         Was it to stimulate close-up investigations of pieces? The images would be showing only small portions and intriguing details of artworks - not complete views.

I experienced all of these when I analyzed the images-see what you think. Go back to the card of images. Endless possibilities depending on visitor outcomes!

Of course, this approach is not limited to art objects -yet again the sky is the limit when it comes to subject matter. I would weigh in that the benefit will come when the outcome is more observationally skill targeted and not just generically “visitors explore the whole site” or “visitors lengthen stay.” Fun and challenge are used not for their sake alone but are simply catalysts not the endgame.

Ah! But what was the actual process they used to play. The objective was to find enough art works to create one of the following: a diagonal, horizontal or vertical line. So, every time you found an item you “x”ed the image on the card. Honour system? They incorporated the use of the back of the card to get you to write down the title and artist beside its corresponding square. If you wanted to, you could return your completed card for a prize and staff would validate the back of the card. The extension to what could be written down beyond title and artist as observational practice opens up many options again -depending on desired visitor outcomes.

Scavenger hunt games have probably come to mind as you read this account and they continue to hold fascination for all ages, especially in groups where there is social interaction involved. The use of these techniques for the young adult crowd as part of an evening visit has potential. They would work in teams to solve something based on deep viewing of different artworks, where discovering onward clues would move them from one piece to the next.

The Lure of Collectibles

In addition, Palm Springs Art Museum had a collectible of sorts, called Artwork of the Month (see image). It was a large bookmark style card with the card front focused on an artist and a photographic image of one piece being displayed, along with, on the cardback, the artist bio and an open area for the visitor to use to connect to the piece on display

Image courtesy Bill Reynolds

In this case, a symbolic drawing was being encouraged to reflect maternal protection and creativity that was the emotional focus the artwork in question was embodying. This “card” was perforated so that the top third could be separated into a business card size, with the artist name and bio being saved. Every month another card would be produced.

Immediately, I was nostalgically brought back in time to late primary age and early elementary age when I looked forward to collecting little cards about flowers, mammals and birds that came in Red Rose tea boxes. Similarly, as I aged I collected sport personality cards and this created a trading frenzy. This card collecting urge has not changed over time -just the subject matter -witness the present Pokemon craze.

So, I thought they may be onto something here. However, it is the colourful image that holds the allure plus a mini- bio so that is what should be on the smaller perforated collectible section. Maybe even a space for a one liner memento of how you felt when first seeing this artwork would have value. Having something only available for a short time -as in a monthly release- opens up return visit promotions for one. I am going to let you take this for an imaginative ride and see how your site (and partners) could cash in on this concept.

All in all, during this December -January holiday season, when game playing gets a sense of rejuvenation, this is a great opportunity to be more cognizant, especially, of recurring styles of games that have endured the test of time and explore how you can adapt their essence play qualities to your heritage appreciation objectives.

The Art of the Invitation

Earlier this month I was speaking at the Australian Wildlife Tourism conference about smart practices when designing interpretive visitor experiences where I introduced several strategies and some cautionary items to think about. Sadly of course, I presented via zoom, as escaping to an Australian spring would have been really nice but not in the cards.

The art of the invitation was one visitor receptiveness strategy I touched on, in order to build an earth relationship and connect with a sense of place.

In this conference context of inviting visitors to engage first hand (using all senses) with the heritage site, I pointed out the need for adapting one’s messaging so that adventure opportunities are voiced as invitations. Visitor uptake is improved by this format reimagining.  Visitors often prefer to remain aloof and don’t naturally gravitate towards interaction with nature -they need nudging and guiding within an atmosphere of relaxed comfortableness. Many times, we don’t set the stage properly or we are too subtle with our suggestions without clear assistance and practice. Result: visitors don’t engage because we have not made it mildly enticing and easy. Let’s look at an example.

image courtesy Bill Reynolds

Here is a sign at a park entrance that was titled, “What do you want to do today?” It has eight sub- titles as in “Learn about Plant Diversity and “Have an Adventure” (see image). Having a sign like this is a positive first step because it answers, “what is there to do here?” – a question that often lurks in the visitor’s minds. Secondly, it is not just a big list but the ideas are grouped into categories with mini-bulleted lists to help and not overwhelm the reader.

Image courtesy Bill Reynolds

So far so good. When you drill down the “Have an Adventure” section more, you will find generic expressions as in “Look into an underwater mini-world on the boardwalk.” There is an image associated with this one bulleted opportunity that suggests “looking” means changing your normal upright posture ie. getting down on your belly. Getting visitors to alter their perception in different ways that will heighten their nature awareness is a key strategy that heritage sites need to facilitate more.

However, people don’t generally jump into different situations they are not used to or employ their senses in new and novel way without assistance and some carefully designed coercion- this is where the art of the invitation comes in.

Remember I said mildly enticing. The above “look” expression is more of a command than an invitation. An invitation would be more along the lines of “don’t miss the dragonflies breaking their back as they begin their life of aerial acrobatics.”  The idea is to spark curiosity about something as in this case -why do dragonflies break their back in order to begin flying?  This is not the time to use words like nymphs and incomplete metamorphosis(although I am sure I did that in my early years fresh out of university biological science).

Image courtesy Bill Reynolds

Of course, such an invitation is timely and this would require being aware of seasonality and changing visitor messages throughout the year. This just might be an outcome your site interpretive plan delineated.

Letting your visitors know what is “naturally” happening this day, this week, this season as rationale to go exploring to encounter something different can also be very inviting. This would also encourage frequent visitors to check out “What’s happening today” because why else would you if the message never changes. Adding a personal touch also increases the invitational draw, as in “Meet Joan at the boardwalk at 2pm to see a whirlygig up-close.”  By saying whirlygig but not saying whirlygig beetle you also maintain the mystery.

Imagine if you entered a clothing store and they had a sign that said “try a hat on” or it said “express yourself this winter by sporting a rainbow- coloured hat from the popular, newly arrived collection. Francois is here to help you.” Which would be more effective in engaging your visitor? It is time to re-read the suggestions you provide for visitors to test their level of invitation and start ramping up their effectiveness.  We have delved into this art of the invitation in previous blog posts and an excellent backgrounder is offered here:  Interpretive Invitations — EID Coaching

So what about that seasonality thing? We need to think about it way more than we do. Remember my reference to having shared cautionary items. Here is one: Beware of the invite that is no longer there. I run into this so often when I am invited by a sign to do something out-of season or I am reading a description of a living thing that is only appropriate for a few weeks- maybe a month, in a year. Don’t fall into the seasonality trap. Review your signage.

This following sign is another good first shot at presenting to the visitor, at least, the diversity of life that could be encountered at different times of the year(so it’s worth coming back) during the circular year. It is all a bit of a jumble: fun for those who have a good natural history knowledge already and can pair words and images together like solving a puzzle, but confusing for those with little background.

EID always wants signage to encourage visitors to do something to increase their earth relationship. Was the intent to have visitors search for certain seasonal flagship species? Would it have been easier to provide helpful hints like directing visitors to certain locales to increase their spotting chances? Would it have been mildly enticing to create a game like having bingo cards available with different images in each square (instead of alphanumeric symbols) using the images on the seasonal chart sign? People/families could hand them in for discount prizes on field guides for example.

Yet is it clear that these fellow passengers on planet earth appear at different times and in different forms? Knowing what the exhibit outcomes were that they wanted to achieve would be intriguing in order to assess success. Why were these specific species chosen to represent their season? Was it easier to find these denizens here at this site because of a certain soil- atmosphere- water regime-habitat assemblage? What’s the story here?

Image courtesy Bill Reynolds

In the above example of boardwalk looking, we are told we can look into the underwater mini-world. Well that only pertains to two thirds of the year (not bad, and certainly better than reading all year about flowers that bloom for only a few weeks of the year). You still have no idea of what you might look for & when or how. We can set our visitors’ expectations better, can’t we?

Remember I mentioned making engagement easy. That does not happen by telling our visitor to look into the water under the boardwalk and then showing a picture of people lying on their stomachs and peering down. Setting expectations and nudging them along would require:

• clear directions of how to get to the boardwalk,

• clever ways to get visitors to lower themselves from their normal comfortable bipedal position,

• observational aids like facemasks and magnifiers,

• collecting apparati like dip nets and trays,

• laminated critter sheets showing the weird and wonderful underwater adaptations they have.

• awareness of where all the aids are available (as in a borrowable backpack from the visitor centre or bookable at what times at the boardwalk “invitation station?”)

  We describe this concept more fully in our blog post Interpretive Invitations — EID Coaching  Assuming you have potentially whet their appetite for adventure, you need to follow through with the next steps that get the visitor interaction ball rolling. Don’t leave it to chance.

I recently encountered a self-guided sign that not only addressed seasonality but also talked about next steps. Take the time to read this well written text in this next image.

Image courtesy Bill Reynolds

As the sign is read year- round the interpreters tackled the seasonality issue by discussing them all at once. The image though shows only the summer and fall portions. Not only is it relevant for when the visitor is there but it also provides a hint at changes that you could be noticing at different times of the year. The way it is written is not command-style either as in a Stop Look and Listen approach. Rather it is like an observant author sharing their thoughts providing for the visitor a confirmation as in “I noticed that too” or a future challenge, “I need to be on the look-out for that.”  There is even a clear section on the sign that says “Next Steps.”

Helping the visitor engage with nature is facilitated by making a “doing” interaction easy and enticing. The expansion of the invitational station concept with observational aids plus practice with participatory activities needs to take place.  I visualize these places as micro- visitor centres situated in key places that aim at assisting the visitor with sensory alertness and perception-changing. Self-guided signage can play a reinforcing role in tandem with these stations where interactions with the earth, and time spent in touch with nature, embraces seasonality and ongoing change. Let Mike and I know through contact@eidcoaching.com if we can help you conceptualize what this kind of station might look like at your site. There is no better time than the present.

Living in Harmony

I was pleasantly surprised at a park visitor centre this fall when I encountered an exhibit heading about repairing your broken Earth relationship, as it posed some very interesting questions worthy of in-depth exploration.

Image courtesy Bill Reynolds

Having a harmonious relationship with the earth could be the answer to many of our existing environmental problems. Assisting visitors to adopt such a lifestyle is extremely important. Without realizing it, people have broken and continue to break their connections with mother earth and these broken connections are causing big problems. The human race needs retraining to improve their earth relationship and begin crafting their lifestyles to lessen their impact.

I was elated to see that a park visitor centre felt it was their job to help humans to do this.

Modeling positive behaviours along a wide spectrum of categories is key, whether that be an individual or a centre. Fundamentally we need more caring role models that treat our fellow living passengers gently and respectfully. Small steps - as in taking spiders outside to watch them or release them rather than stepping on them as a first reaction. Then we can build toward understandings of how life works on the planet.

People need to be reminded that the earth has its own interconnected life support systems to recycle its air, water and soil. Because of this every living thing is connected to everything else (including us) – a fact that reinforces the interdependency between living things- this understanding of critical connections all living things have to each other has been forgotten, due primarily to our living in cities. Out of sight, out of mind. I was intrigued to discover how this park was going to undertake this urgent task.

Can a small text-bound exhibit accomplish this by asking visitors to read a list of action steps for five different components: plants, animals. rocks, sky and water? I think not. There is an assumption that the human visitors need to heal and repair a broken relationship, where they may not feel that to begin with. There was no criteria to help you assess this- what defines an harmonious relationship in the first place?

Image courtesy Bill Reynolds

By reading the do’s and don’ts under each category you get a sense of what the lofty exhibit interpretive goals must have been- the sheer number of changes is totally unrealistic especially with this small exhibit format and no learning situations having been designed. This definitely would lend itself to focusing on one topic at a time with a changing topic format over time if dedicated floor square footage was limited.

Could the goal have been for visitors to commit to do this grab bag list of actions when they leave the exhibit? What were they thinking?  “OK. We will break up the 20 tasks into 5 lists of 4 by hiding them behind little doors (see the handles in the images) that the visitor will have to open -this will be the hook to keep the mystery alive and keep them reading and that will get them (magically?) to commit some of these to memory…” Are you kidding me? Please get in touch with us to get our initial feedback on interpretive design ideas to ensure they  will  match to goal achievement.

Opening the little doors lost interest after the first one when you discovered it was a bunch of black words on white background. Immediate action works best – if the expectation is that the action takes place back home you need follow-up reinforcement. I saw no printed takeaways or pledges with the promise from the site would remind you one month from that visit day.

WHAT WAS THE MOTIVATION? Where was the fun- the challenge?

The choice of positive behaviours as illustrated in the two images, seemed a bit random-what do you think?  Some of these points are valid mainly from a park management perspective, some are important takeaways, some are outright strange.

Why rocks were chosen as a heading for one, instead of soil -the placenta of life? Initial learnings on the subject of fertility (a critical missing piece) introducing soil’s role as the basis of food energy and a model of recycling would connect to behaviours about how we treat soil. Additionally, the need for each of the topical behavioural changes to be made, would have more impact if they were encouraging visitors to go to places to see things first hand. In this case, visiting a permaculture farm would reinforce initial learnings.

Do not graffiti rocks and don’t stack rocks in piles as two actions they want visitors to not do has little in my mind to do with having a respectful relationship with a rock. Since time immemorial indigenous human beings have left markings on rocks and piled them for various reasons such as directional aids and to gain good luck in the upcoming hunt. The action of leaving rocks where you find them is respectful not on behalf of the rock but because of the micro flora and fauna that depend on that rock as a home.

Image courtesy Bill Reynolds

In all cases whenever there is an action to be embraced you would need to explain the rationale behind why the action is being recommended otherwise it falls flat as a useless platitude. “Because the ranger said so,“ is not going to wash these days. Of course, simply providing the rationale in words is not usually enough unless you also have some real - life first hand interaction where you see the problem in front of you. However, providing rationale and explanations without an emotional foundation is often not convincing.

Why was sky chosen and not air? Why is light pollution the priority - it certainly is not as important as implementing actions that would keep our air clean.

Read the list they compiled for animals. Are these getting at actions that would heal our relationship with animals? What do you think? At the very least, should we not be thinking of actions that would increase our abilities to observe and treat animals (mega and micro) as fellow passengers who have families and live in communities?

When I read the list for plants, I wondered why there was nothing regarding our dependence on them for oxygen and their taking carbon out of the atmosphere in light of our continuing release of carbon at alarming rates. The native-invasive issue is a good one but certainly subsidiary to the former understanding and reason for an ongoing thankful relationship with green plants (Full disclosure: I used to have a bumper sticker that said “Have you thanked a green plant today?”)

However, none of these actions will build a sense of relationship! They are more a result of having one. We urgently need more dedicated springboard facilities in neighbourhood areas to take this building of an harmonious relationship task on, just as we support recreational facilities and libraries for healthy bodies and minds.

Has anyone seen a good springboard format for having people develop a deeper more personal relationship, learn to live more lightly on the earth and deal with any environmental behaviour change? Let us know.

Book Cover

The development of Earthkeepers Training Centres by the Institute for Earth Education had the building of an harmonious earth relationship as their objective. One of the aspects of the resident program included conducting earthwalks. The Institute produced a book called EarthWalks -an alternative nature experience that has a compilation of activities designed and refined to re-establish a human relationship with the earth by addressing the feelings of joy, kinship, reverence and love. Now we are talking. If you do not spend time outside and you do not reduce your anxiety, increase your comfort and be filled with wonder in fresh air, clean water, while revelling in interrelationships, patterns, smells, and colours- you will never rebuild your sense of belonging and respect for your earth home.

The book Earth Education: A new beginning by Steve Van Matre covers how to create exciting learning situations where heightened feelings for the natural world combined with increased ecological understandings would form the foundation for positive environmental habits. The emphasis is on cumulative learning experiences with specific outcomes in mind.

If you believe experiences like these are critical for our expanding disconnected population then I heartily recommend you absorb these books available on Amazon and at www.ieetree.org

Soup to Nuts…A Survey Tool, Economics & Heritage Sites, Labels in Art Museums, & Indigenous Planning

At EID we think it is important to bring a variety of voices into blog posts. So this post has a series of links to some information we hope you will find useful for your site and in the planning process.

Track ‘N Time Survey Tool

This first link is “tooting” our own horn. It is the link to the recent webinar led by Lar Wohlers on the Track ‘N Time Survey Tool that you can use right away and is free for three months. The presentation is a little over an hour. Please contact Lars at lars.wohlers@eidcoaching.com if you are interested in using the survey tool or have questions.

https://youtu.be/943kMRvOH3c

Economics Rabbit Hole

Lars recommended the book Interpretive Planning for Museums by Wells, Butler, & Koke and it is excellent (Marcella Wells will be a guest blogger in the near future). One of the topics in the book dealt with conducting an economic audit on the impact of your site on the community. Since Lars is currently a professor teaching a course in Environmental Economics he provided a few valuable resources to share on this topic.

1.     This link looks at the direct economic benefits to communities by national parks in the United States and was conducted by the National Park Service (NPS). It is a straightforward look at the numbers from the 2021 survey. 

https://www.nps.gov/nature/customcf/NPS_Data_Visualization/docs/NPS_2021_Visitor_           Spending_Effects.pdf 

2.     This next link is also authored by NPS and review the impact of heritage site from a social science perspective on a national, state, and local level in the United States. This has a lot of information and good graphics.

https://www.nps.gov/subjects/socialscience/vse.htm

3.     One more link along this economic vein is a blog post by the Canadian interpretive planner Don Enright. We follow Don’s posts and he is spot on with this one. He takes a close look at the economic and cultural impacts of heritage sites he has worked with. Definitely a good read.

https://www.donenright.com/revenue-generation-in-the-heritage-sector/

 How Would You Design Art Museum Labels?

Now for something completely different – how to label art in museums. Lorin Labardee, an artist in Tucson, Arizona, puts out a regular newsletter that is funny and informative. This one caught our eye because labels in art museums are…well an issue for us at EID. Lorin provides some good insights and good ideas for breaking the cycle of “museum label fatigue.”

https://www.lorinlabardee.com/blog-1/how-to-love-art-and-not-be-confused-or-dumb-simple-advice-2024?mc_cid=b5a79746f3&mc_eid=fe8ff470e6

Planning & Preserving from an Indigenous Perspective

Our final recommendation is a wonderful article about an Indigenous Nation in Canada creating a “blue” park fully managed and planned by the Nation. By imbuing the preserve with both cultural and natural principles to respect the past and to encourage the culture of today to thrive. This article provides a unique perspective to planning and mixed use.

https://happyeconews.com/gitdisdzu-lugyeks/ 

We hope at least one of these links is useful and let us know if you have a favorite article or piece of information you would like us to share. Who knows, it may show up in a future post.

All the Best,

Bill, Lars, Mike

Role Play

Our Role… Your Role

The juxtaposition of these two titles (Our Role, Your Role) on large outdoor interpretive panels really made an impression on me. They were part of a panel series situated on a viewing platform that overlooked a ravine where a now abandoned artificial peregrine falcon nest had been built on the opposite side. Read the text on the following two images.

image courtesy Bill Reynolds

image courtesy Bill Reynolds

This is an excellent call to action providing the visitor with a follow-up to a learning they have acquired at your site. We all need to include this type of “things to do” back home stimulus as part and parcel of the various teachable moments visitors encountered. Thinking about what visitors are going to DO with the information we provide should be always on our mind. Answering WHY we have told them something goes hand in hand with this. Our role… your role is an instructive coupling that presents a heritage protection message the visitor takes home with them. If you have seen a good example on your travels, send it to us.

Fossil Finesse

Had to share a form of personal interpretation that I encountered this summer that stood out as an engaging approach to presenting historical earth timelines as a starter exercise to a Fossil Walk. How do you set up a participatory role for your programme attendees to get across the appreciation for a chronological succession in time gaps between the creation of different forms of lifeforms as they appeared on earth and subsequently showed up in the fossil record.

image courtesy Bill Reynolds

This interpreter had pre-prepared about 12-15 stiff white cards (see image) labelled with names of life forms (like flowering plants, shellfish, dinosaurs) and major geological events (like last ice age) and he distributed them among the attendees. He also included Humans as a life form card which is critical to place people in relationship. This programme was being done on a beach where we were to soon explore for fossils. To kick start the proceedings, he set timeline boundaries on the beach surface by placing the card labelled (EARTH CREATION) at one end then walked in a straight line to another spot (20-30 yards away) and placed the card labelled NOW.  

Then he asked the participant cardholders to place their cards in order of when their creatures first appeared on earth (due to their fossil evidence). As there were around 50 people on the walk, he had thought about a role for everybody. Any suggestions from non cardholders were encouraged. Lots of discussions took place among people of all ages and levels of expertise and cards were moved about once everyone had seen the whole complement of life forms to be sorted.

The interpreter had facilitated an experience and had taken himself out of the role as being the only sage on the stage. When he confirmed with us that we as a group were satisfied with our timeline choices, he summarized our work and had only two minor card shifting corrections. This set the context for the types of fossils we were going to find that day and the ones we were not due to the age of rocks that were exposed on the cliffs at this beach. We were never bombarded with any geologic terms. It was just a fun activity that involved the group along with couples and families working together.  The activity set up the concept of a time relationship to ground us all around the fact that different types of fossils and only certain types of fossils will be found in certain places.

The Role of a Saltmarsh

Often, I find the role and significance of different habitats remains elusive to visitors when they try to fit information being presented to them about different habitats into their life. This interpretive sign accomplished this to a degree better than I have normally run across.

image courtesy Bill Reynolds (apologies for the light glare)

The title drew me in as it stated that the writer actually loved a salt marsh and s/he/they was going to point out the many ways why. I found the 5 key points were abit buried in text and I would have bolded a few words up front as sub-headings beside each number, so the quick reader (scanner) could grasp the points without having to read the whole paragraphs. As an example, Shoreline Protector, and Contaminant Filter are two sub-headings I would suggest to grab attention.

There is a subtle call to action related to the information about the Nature Trust and about how people can donate land to it.

The earth has a role in the great scheme of things as does a natural or cultural heritage organization as does every planetary citizen- let’s keep that in mind and try to interconnect them to the benefit of all life forms.

Signs…one too many or not quite enough

We’ve had signage on the brain lately so time to put in my two cents worth on this topic. An April 2024 visit to two sites, one a large botanical garden in Texas and the other to a smaller heritage garden in Arizona, provided some interpretive signage food for thought.

But before getting into the details of those sites, here’s a few general thoughts on signs and planning:

§  Why do you have a sign in that location?

§  What is its purpose?

§  Does it support the site mission?

§  Is the sign’s intended outcome clear?

§  Have you considered a prototype of the sign so you can evaluate if it is doing the intended job? (The latest research states you have between 8 - 30 seconds before folks move on)

Sign Placement – Where should it go?

Knowing where to place directional or interpretive signs is an important decision for a site. It has been my experience that when visitors arrive they are ready to get out of their vehicles, go to the entrance, pay the fee, find the bathroom, and start the “dance of experience” at the museum or park or zoo or other heritage site. The walkway to the entrance is a time for invitations, anticipation, and some directional landmarks. Anything more is usually a waste of space and money.

Yes, the entrance and arrival area need to be welcoming and pleasing and clearly marked. All of these things were well done as we drove into the botanical garden in Texas. We clearly knew where to go.

 In addition, a statue in the entrance driveway of a father with a young person made me smile and sent the message - “Not just for moms and women.” -  and the dad even had a little “belly”. This is all good stuff and sets a friendly atmosphere.

One Too Many… 

Once folks are out of their vehicles and head to the entrance, they pass several side paths with a nice array of plants and way too many signs. These signs tell the story of the monarch butterfly on its journey through Canada, United States and Mexico. There are also a few other pollinators tossed in for good measure. Most folks aren’t aware of the signs in this area and don’t want to be diverted from their primary destination – the entrance.

 Of course, you could intentionally go from the car park, through these paths and then to the entrance path but that is highly unlikely. A well- marked walkway makes it clear how to get to the entrance door.

 Once inside the front entrance there is plenty of open space, cool air, an obvious fee area, a gift store, restrooms, lots of plant pictures and large windows that invite the visitor to head outdoors and experience the garden’s delights.

 During our exit from the main garden grounds my friend and I spent about 45 minutes exploring the signs and paths we ignored when we entered (This is known as “fun” for us interpretive geeks). During this time we only saw one couple wandering down these side paths as they moved toward the entrance. All other visitors headed directly from their cars to the entrance, or when exiting they went directly to their cars. Perhaps if we had visited on a weekend foot traffic patterns would be different, but I doubt it.

 Sign Fatigue…

So, not only a lot of signs but lots of information which usually means at some point “sign fatigue” sets in. After a while even interpretive geeks like my friend and me were simply reverting to the standard 8 second average viewing time. Occasionally something would catch our eye, but not on every sign.  And it wasn’t even about the signs being text heavy, it was simply too many signs that did not really lead to any experience or even to a destination.

 Please don’t misunderstand, the messages along these paths are important. Knowing about pollinators and the amazing journey of the monarchs is an outcome everyone needs to absorb in their Head and Heart. And, if the site thinks this is an important outcome for all visitors to leave with here are some things to consider: 

1.        Perhaps this information about the monarch and pollinators is better placed inside the main garden where more visitors would have access to the message. Then a simple A-Frame sign inviting visitors to find out about pollinators, and specifically the monarch story, could be placed along the entrance way. This kind of signage builds anticipation and sets the stage for a key visitor takeaways. Realistically, that is about all you can expect to achieve in the pre-entrance phase of the visitor journey.

2.        How about this idea…if the site really wants visitors get to experience pollinators before they enter the main garden, why not cover the pollinator section with a tent like netting (seasonally removable) and fill the area with all kinds of native butterflies. Talk about an attraction! That would certainly get visitors’ attention and indicate the site believes knowing about pollinators is important. Then you only need a few targeted signs for the Head and the Heart inside the netting.

3.        This area has great potential for an exit experience. Yes, in most cases when folks are done they are done. But setting up an intentional exit experience could provide a strong remembrance and reinforce the garden outcomes regarding pollinators and the monarch.

Not Quite Enough…

At the other end of the spectrum is a lovey 4 acre (1.6 hectares) heritage garden in Tucson, Arizona. It is on land in the Sonoran Desert of the North American Southwest inhabited for over 3,000 years by the ancestors of current members of the Tohono O’odham and Pascua Yaqui peoples, was conquered by Spain, became part of Mexico, and eventually became part of the United States through the Gadsden Purchase. It is enclosed by a colonial Spanish style presidio wall. The garden’s focus is the fruits and vegetables grown by this arc of culture, offers a variety of natural history activities for the community, and is used for public events.

This site is not easy to find even though it is off of a fairly busy street on the west side of the city. Every time I visit I get a bit nervous trying not to miss the turn off and often need a GPS map as a reminder of where to turn. There are no signs along the major road to ease my arrival anxiety; there is not even a sign indicating there is a parking area ahead once I make the turn.

Once out of the car the adobe style wall indicates which direction to head and as you approach a walkway leading to the entrance some signs begin to appear.

 When you look beyond entry sign there are some very colorful signs along the path to the entrance in English, Spanish and O’odham. Unfortunately, they are tucked behind vegetation and can be missed. On the positive side, the signs are not trying to educate or interpret. They are pleasing and do pull the visitor along.

At the entrance to the main garden is some information about current events and a definite sense of going back in time. Though getting to the inside entrance to the garden is not difficult, if you are a first time visitor you may start to wonder, “Where am I going and when will I get there?”

 A few suggestions…

1.        To reduce the “Am I in the right place” anxiety a couple of signs along the main street would be useful. Perhaps coordinating this with the city transportation department is the way to go with one sign ½ mile from the entrance and another indicating where to turn.

2.        Once the turn is made a colorful sign decorated with native vegetation visitors might encountered in the garden could help direct folks to the parking lot. It  would also help to build anticipation. Having this sign in 3 languages would let visitors know a wide range of folks are welcome.

3.        What might be most useful is for the staff  and other associates, along with an interpretive planner, to walk through the arrival and entrance experience and decide where to best place important landmark signs.

 So, to wrap things up a bit here is what we think an interpretive sign should do:

¨     Provide directions to a trail, building, event, etc.

¨     Help folks know where they are

¨     Reduce arrival anxiety

¨     Encourage some kind of interaction with an object or the natural world

¨     Stimulate the Head and Heart

¨     Prepare folks for something coming next

¨     Make sure visitors haven't missed something important

¨     Provide some reinforcement for what they have just experienced

 Here are some things to AVOID when planning signs:

Þ   Not too many -- these are just landmarks for what you want people to do or leave with in their Head, Heart and Hands, and to reinforce site outcomes. The cultural experience or natural environment should be the "star."

Þ   Don't expect visitors to do much reading or stopping on the walkway to the site entrance. Folks want to get in and get going.

Time for us to take a “sign break” and move on to other topics in upcoming posts. However, if you would like to work with EID on your signage in the arrival, welcome, entrance and orientation area then please take us up on our offer of a free coaching session.This offer is available for the rest of 2024. Email us atcontact@eidcoaching.com and we will set up a date and time that works for you. Meanwhile, enjoy the signs of autumn wherever you may be.

Engagement: It’s all about the Approach

Normally I shy away from reading self-guiding heritage district interpretive leaflets having been turned away too many times due to their normally dry text, lack of images and plethora of descriptive terms about carpentry and architectural features like dormers, and pediments. All the while, the writers usually assume you are aware of the diverse assemblage of terms already and that you can pick out the many defining characteristics by yourself, if presented the house. On occasion, the writers may have included a back page explanatory list or glossary of terms resembling a scholarly text. The end result for the viewer often becomes a constant wondering – “are THOSE examples of cornices??”

None of these approaches provide a fun entry to exploring the streets of a heritage district. What is actually encouraging you to discover on your own and pick out hidden details of homes that illustrate a pride of workmanship, setting them apart from our modern often stark, cookie-cutter homes of today? Is the goal of the walk to be a learning adventure as part of a delightful stroll? Well then how to go about it?

Well, finally we stumbled on an example that used a game approach – a form of scavenger hunt.  We picked up an, “On the Hunt for Heritage“ brochure, from the MacNaught History Centre and Archives in Summerside, PEI, Canada. As the brochure remarks, “…the neighbourhood is a living testament to the tastes and skills of previous residents.” In the brochure introduction, they referred to the amble among the streets as an “invitation” to accept a “challenge” to feature find (my use of bolding and creative coupling).

Image courtesy Bill Reynolds Photos used in Culture Summerside published brochure by John Clevett

Upon accepting the challenge, you then open up the rest of the brochure to expose 8 colourful pages of 12 photographs per page, illustrating six examples for every term (two per page) as in pediment and oculus (see image). The writers’ wise choice was to eliminate cluttering up the page with word definitions to accomplish a successful visual search guide and thereby exemplifying the old phrase – a picture is worth a thousand words. If the human stroller was intrigued enough to want to find out the exact parameters behind what makes a cupula – a cupula- then our friend google will no doubt suffice.

At the base of each visual image example there is a line where, as part of the challenge, you are asked to enter the street address where you ON YOUR OWN, have found the feature being shown in the photograph. Is this not what interpretation aims at accomplishing -DOING and DISCOVERING? This is the engaging alternative to SHOWING AND TELLING that often happens on the too common guided walk or self-guiding brochure, where the building is pointed out to you and the text (or person) explains what (one hopes) you are seeing.  

There is a map of the heritage district as a middle fold out portion of the brochure so you know the boundaries of where your search should be conducted. They ask you to return to the archives or the cultural centre to find out how well you did and to “compare your score with those of other observant and curious people.” They have made this a game which definitely will improve the enticement level for the younger audience. However, I find this a simple yet effective way  to build up “observant and curious” skills in our client base -people of all ages. Will this help to make future walks for these amblers more interesting, by expanding their searching eyes? Will this help to engender a desire for preservation of diverse architectural styles?

This short blog post is an example of an alternative approach for us – we have been toying with the idea of doing shorter but more regular posts. Versus our longer posts on a monthly basis. Please provide us with feedback on your preference.

Appealing Approaches to Signage

If your OBJECTIVE is to introduce visitors to different creatures that inhabit your natural area, ones visitors may not be aware of at your site, AND you feel self-guided signage is a way to accomplish this, THEN here is a fun example. It packs a lot of information onto one sign and may get away with it for several reasons as it stimulates your eye and mind. How is this being achieved:

courtesy Bill Reynolds So many positive aspects to this interpretive sign

·         The sign is divided into 3 differently coloured sub-panels

·         There is a cute, anatomically accurate image of a woodcock associated with each text block

·         The typeface comes in two sizes in case you either want to get a quick overview (the larger size) or have a deeper interest and want to read more (the smaller size)

·         There are eight separate images of a woodcock so the shape for recognition purposes is well reinforced

·         The text is mostly well spaced and not too long for easy reading

·         Most of the facts presented are intriguing and pique a wide-range of interests

·         The writing is conversational and first-person style

·         The title is large, colourful, and declarative in a boastful way (I almost expected to read a sub-line saying …and hear me roar)

This said, if you were to time how long it takes someone to read all the content and compare it to the average visitor’s reading/standing time in one spot (somewhere between 8 - 30 seconds), I would wager there is too much content. Each coloured sub-panel is a sign in itself. The blue section especially is a bit crammed and I would create another section for the four texts circling the probing woodcock image just left of centre.

Also, you are not asked to do anything with what is mentioned while at the sign (like using tweezers to forage and pick up worms) or to follow up at the visitor’s centre regarding evening trips to listen to or catch a glimpse of the spring mating display.

On another note, there is an interesting text that says, “I have a dedicated following of hunters in the fall and bird watchers in the spring.” This conservation site appeals to users that enjoy the resource in different ways and doesn’t shy away from its mission, so they must have a management approach allowing for compatibility between these uses.

There are a few word choices that may be unfamiliar to the general public in the text - can you find them? What wording do you think should be altered to be more easily understood? Send us your thought via email – respondents always receive some gift to recognize their contribution.

Also, on an avian bent, I present a different style of sign that deals with bird knowledge by using a similar large size in an outdoor setting. The approachability occurs through the appeal of reading (eavesdropping on) a letter from an avian snowbird travelling between homes. It is a clever way to use a conversational tone again, this time with fewer declarative facts and more poetic, descriptive, and humourous anthropomorphism to boost the visitors’ knowledge banks.

While the letter reads well, it is a bit lengthy (15-18 lines), the lettering is a bit small, and cursive writing might be an obstacle. Some other thoughts came to mind…It is easily recognizable as a letter to an adult familiar with airmail or any snail mail for that matter, but can that be assumed for those under 30 years of age? Would a screen shot of an email or an Instagram format work for a wider age range? Is the use of a stamp with the bird-in-question’s image too subtle for those visitors who are NOT already familiar with what a sanderling or plover looks like? Nice touch but perhaps needs more image reinforcement on the sign.

With the line beginning, “Could you mention me to the visitors you see…” the interpretive text cleverly explores a sensitive management issue regarding nesting. The sign works at raising awareness of this shorebird’s beach-nesting habits and the necessity of keeping a distance at critical times. The text also inserts an anticipatory feeling of having (at a safe distance) a glimpse of the plover’s hilarious running bird dance. Again, though, there is no interactive component or follow-up with interpretive programming that would connect the visitor to a real life view of the plover in a controlled encounter. Pointing out the availability of binoculars for rent in order to get a good look at the bird would be one way of doing this.

courtesy Bill Reynolds AKA EID Coach AKA Curiosity Catalyst

And here is another avian letter to consider. Starting with “Greetings to my two-legged friends” as the letter opening line, it does a good job of catching one’s attention. Then the mention of food and an exotic destination gets the travel interest hooks in you as the sanderling says, “got my beak in the sand checking out Chile’s gastronomic delights.” Interspersing a catchy little phrase like this one of, “all the while maintaining my curvaceous silhouette,” keeps the reader chuckling and alert.

The choice of letters from two migratory bird - one species being a nester on the islands and one species being a stopover rest and recovery type - is a good decision and critical to getting across the knowledge of these two major reasons for migratory bird protection areas. I would have highlighted these two important aspects more pointedly as I am assuming these are the desired conceptual take-aways. There is a bit of a tug at the visitors’ emotions and an attempt at forming a relationship with the life cycle of these two birds who share their beach home, food, efforts at raising a family (every year) and travel great distances under meteorological hardships in order to exist with the “two legged friends.”

If these birds believed in possessivse property rights, this home invasion by the humans would be viewed as a form of trespassing. Luckily the natural world has a different boundary perspective and land sharing deals go on without exclusive ownership. Hmmm!!

Potato Mash-Up

Prince Edward Island, Canada is famous for their potato crop and a visit to the namesake museum was a stop on a recent trip itinerary. Out front of the Canadian Potato Museum was a very prominent, clear, colourful sign that was easy to read at a distance, had clear lettering on contrasting background, and it was sparkling clean - that is not always the case for visitor centres and I could fill a book with bad examples much more easily.

However, even though all these points are very important, what I really want to stress today is the last line on the sign. They are letting you know about the “Country Kitchen” availability with the universal symbol of knife and fork being recognizable as an eating establishment.

This is a welcoming and orientation design decision that informs & impacts the visitor journey experience along with potential attendance, which therefore impacts interpretive contacts. Travellers need to know and locals need to be reminded that you have food and beverages on site. 

courtesy Bill Reynolds

Never Underestimate the Power of Food

In EID, we talk about the holistic 4H visitor and how appealing to their Head, Heart, Hands, and Hunger is so critical to interpretive success.  Eating areas onsite should be designed to reinforce your site mission and messages period! Or you are cheating your visitor…and your site!

Food can be about revenue generating possibilities, getting the visitor in the door to improve awareness, and beginning the forging of a relationship between your site and the visitor.  Awareness of food and interpretive partnerships with food vendors are undersold as collaborative opportunities.  The visitor may not have originally intended to make this stop but now…here they are. Maybe they didn’t have time to visit the museum on this occasion but perhaps in the future they will, and you now have a chance to influence that return decision.

In addition, if visitors know they can grab a bite at the museum that might mean they don’t have to find another place to eat with the result being they might potentially never come back.  Visitors can accomplish both food and leisure attraction visit needs with your one-stop shop, so they might as well drop-in.

With a crop-food product as the main focus of this site, it would be a simple task to reinforce mission connections through the direct act of eating the topic being interpreted. In the majority of cases, more effort is needed.

Too many sites we visit are missing the opportunities to have an interpretive presence integrated within their food and beverage operation that could contain subtle cues reinforcing your site goals and make your site experience more engaging for the visitor. You need to advocate for this interpretive addition and we would love to have a conversation with you about how to do this at your site regardless of your topic focus. Our email is:  contact@eidcoaching.com

Focal Point: Don’t Overdo It

From a display perspective, the Canadian Potato Museum, took an interesting approach to interpreting disease and death among the plant world. They decided to employ silk-lined miniature (8 inch/20 cm) coffins to house various pest-afflicted potatoes. They mounted them on the wall with an associated vertical text description and a photograph of the pest in question.  The first one was effective to catch your attention but a wall array of them all displayed in the same manner lost its initial effect.

Tuber R.I.P Courtesy Bill Reynolds

A plant agronomist would have been glued to the display but a potato in numerous discoloured and mis-formed shapes (even in beautifully designed little coffins) as a visual display did not hold the average visitor. Using one as an arresting focal point then highlighting the diversity of parasites and associated conditions around their lives, for example, could have been more effective. Inter- relationships between the animal and plant world can be relevant to many visitors and open up a world of intrigue for the person who is not involved in crop management and viewing their livelihood through a pest/host perspective.  As always, determining the outcome for different kinds of visitors remains paramount for design decisions and displays.

Side Note: You could have interpretive fun with the gravestone moniker R.I.P with titles like:  Rejoice in Parasitology; Rest in Potato Peace etc. Send your examples to contact@eidcoaching.com and the best one will receive a 1- hour coaching consult- free of charge from EID.

Participatory Analogy

Discovering a yoga potato poster down a hallway was an unexpected find.  A diamond-in-the-rough or a tuber-in-a-trough, so to speak, was languishing behind-the-scenes but it carried with it so much participatory potential.  Such a novel way to actively engage the visitor and make the grow-harvest cycle relevant by doing yoga moves that mimic what potato growers do. How the site had used or were using the poster was unclear; however, if integrated into the site visit, it would have added a fun component.

Spud Yoga Courtesy Bill Reynolds

It could be used individually or to lead your family as a self-guided approach throughout the site.  I really believe it would best be done as a fun pre-registered event for a group, because not every visitor would be attired properly and doing the complete exercise routine would take some time.  It has potential to be broken up into seasonal chunks with certain stations being done in different regions of the museum. Stretch and bend like growing sprouts exercise as one example could be handled relatively easily with photos to guide the visitor through the task.

Maybe even a video of a staff member performing the poses on the museum website as a “follow along” for folks at home before they even visit. Then when they arrive at the site they can repeat the pose at the same on- site location.

Do you see other ways to apply this use of a sport exercise analogy to a natural history process?  Would some process at your site lend itself to a comparison like this, using yoga or some other athletic maneuver – judo, football, sailing – to engage the visitor? Have fun with this one and let your imagination go. Send us what you come up with in the comment section of the blog post and we will share it with others.

Namaste