Marcie,I have been evaluating the exhibits at the Museum of the Aleutians and your current discussion of exhibit development got me to thinking about how visitors use exhibits versus how exhibits are designed to be used.
The design documents here begin with Concept Design in February 2009, and end with the Exhibit Manual in October 2013. Everything seems to have been built according to the concept design except for one gallery: the Fishing History exhibit. The exhibit text panels were all produced according to the Design Development documents, but the room is totally reconfigured, and the panels are placed in an awkward layout that makes them user-unfriendly. There is a video produced in 1997 playing in the middle of the room. The exhibit has the lowest visitor stay time in the museum.
I have never seen a visitor try on the rain gear, however, let alone take a picture.
At first I thought this owed to the fact that there is no sign telling you to try on the clothes. But no, today I see that the words above the clothes tell you to try them on.
I have been in this gallery every day for 30 days and never noticed the sign telling you to try on the clothes. I am sure that when the exhibit was designed it made perfect sense and everyone thought it was clear and clever. But the lesson is that only by assessing the actual visitor experience can you really understand how your exhibit works. And in this case, you must make sure you can make changes or alterations that allow people to experience your learning objectives.
Otherwise, your exhibits will just be clothes hanging on a wall.
I see what you are saying. The coolest part of the exhibit in the art gallery I am working with is walking behind the shed and looking into it, as it is lit up by a projection. No one goes back there unless you take them, because of the awkward set up of it. It's not clear you CAN go back there, let alone that you SHOULD. You can have a brilliant exhibit, but if no one knows its there, then no one can appriecate it. As designers, we need to step out of our own heads, and see the big picture to make it work the way we want it too.
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