Hello,

My name is Mara Andersen.  I'm a member of the Education Department at the Denver Art Museum.  At the moment, we're seeking whatever wisdom we can find to help develop the (mostly stationary) audio programs in our new permanent galleries.  We've determined the purpose and general content for several audio projects, but would like to learn what we can about making them work best for visitors. If you've done, or know of, any evaluations, reports, articles, projects at other institutions, or other sources that you feel are salient, I'd appreciate being pointed in those directions. Following are some of the types of questions we're thinking about.

What makes it inviting or enticing to listen to an audio component?
How long do visitors listen in one place?  
What factors make a difference in listening time?
What kind of atmosphere or setting works best?  What to avoid?
What are the visitor implications for different kinds of equipment?  Have you had particularly great/terrible experiences with anything?
How do you handle instructions?
How many choices, in terms of programs at a single point, to offer?  What kinds of choices?
What's been done with non-informational programming (ie. music, poetry, atmospheric sounds)?
What do visitors not like about audio programs?
What kind of new things are being done with content, tone, production extras?

Thank you for any suggestions you can offer.

Mara Andersen

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