Jay Heuman wrote:
>         While you are right that most museum visitors can stay longer than 45
> minutes, most complaints of fatigue (that I've heard) begin at the 45 minute
> mark.  Most visitors are quiet capable of lasting longer . . . but beyond
> that point, one must evaluate quality versus quantity.  Staying longer is
> not necessarily a better experience.

I am not saying that we should expect visitors to stay longer if we
provide -- say -- two hours of audio clips. I am saying that we have the
ability to provide a broader range of information via audio so that
visitors may choose selections best fit to their interests and
knowledge. It is likely that visitors' entire visit length will not
change -- due to the limits of fatigue and other factors. But, given
carefully selected options, they may have a richer visit within the same
amount of time.

For example -- at the Pequot Museum, most of the supplementary audios I
chose to listen to were the statements from experts about how we know
what we know (and what we still don't know) about historic Pequot
village life. It turns out that my mother, who spent the same amount of
time in that area, listened to more of the how to audios -- like how to
make jewelry or how to fish. It made for interesting conversation
afterwards, as we had a common experience but learned different things.

--
Susan B.F. Wageman
Evaluation Manager                       [log in to unmask]
The Tech Museum of Innovation            408-795-6303
201 South Market Street                  fax: 408-279-7167
San Jose, California USA 95113           http://www.thetech.org

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