On 13 Jun 1996, Doug Hoy wrote:

> In article <[log in to unmask]>, Hank Burchard
<[log in to unmask]> says:
> >
> >On Mon, 10 Jun 1996, Jennifer Reed wrote:
> >
> >> From Catherine Lewis:
> >> >
> >> > Does anyone on the list know of any recent studies that discuss how long
> >> > visitors spend reading labels in exhibition galleries?
> >> >
> >> I don't know of any specific studies, but I've heard the
> >> figures 6-10 seconds many times.  Pretty unbelievable!
> >
> >     And I don't believe it.
> >
> >
> On what evidence do you base your belief, Hank?

  As I've said in several previous postings on this thread, my opinion is
based on anecdotal evidence accumulated during 20+ years as a fulltime
museum reviewer. One of my principal tools in evaluating the effectiveness
of an exhibit is watching visitors go through it.


> It would take maybe a day to gather some data from any handy museum
> exhibit to get a ballpark figure. Shouldn't be too hard to move this
> discussion to a more informed level.
>
> If you include the people who just glance briefly at a label, decide not
> to bother, then move on, the average time is quite low. If you graph the
> frequency of times, there are a lot of these, and decreasing numbers of
> visitors who spent longer times. THere are often a few people who do spend
> a longish time, though. An arithmetic mean is a poor way to capture this
> sort of J-curve. A survival curve is probably more apt.

  No exhibit is going to appeal to everybody. My attitude is that if a
third or even a tenth of those who pass through an exhibit are truly
engaged by it, that's a hell of a batting average.

     Hank Burchard * <[log in to unmask]> * Washington DC | USA