Would it work to make your timelines
vertical?
_________________________________
Janis Wilkens
Registrar
704.333.1887 x
257 | fax 704.333.1896
Office
hours: Tues., Wed. 10:00-4:00; Thur. 12:00-6:00; Fri. 10:00--4:00
From: Museum
discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Wilson, Linda
Sent: Friday, April 23, 2010 11:44
AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] FW: Visitors
reading timelines?
“Will it be confusing to visitors?”
Hmm. Sounds like a good formative
evaluation question to me.
Is there time to mock it up and bring
visitors in from the right and talk to them about it? Talking to 15-20
visitors may give you a clear-cut answer.
And if there is no clear solution?
As some have commented, you’ll take your best shot, now knowing there is no
perfect answer.
And whatever you find out, please do write
it up so others can learn from your study!
Linda
Wilson
Director, Audience
Research and Evaluation
John G. Shedd Aquarium
1200 S. Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, IL 60605
[log in to unmask]
PH (312) 692 3261
FAX (312) 939-8677
"The sun was warm but the wind was
chill. You know how it is with an April day.
When the sun is out and the wind is
still, You're one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak, a
cloud come over the sunlit arch,
And wind comes off a frozen peak, And
you're two months back in the middle of March."
- Robert
Frost, Two Tramps in Mud Time,
1926
From: Ann Craig
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, April 22, 2010
12:10 PM
Subject: Visitors reading
timelines?
We are constructing an exhibit on the co-evolution of horses
and grasslands and are having some disagreement about which direction our
timelines and evolutionary "bushes" should move.
Should a single panel or case have time move from the
left to the right - from millions of years ago to the present - regardless of
the direction which visitors approach the panel or case?
OR
If visitors approach the panel or case from the right,
should time start from the right and move to the left?
I think visitors will always look at the case as a whole
and then start observing from the left to the right, just how they read.
What do you think?
Ann Craig
Assistant Director,
Education
Mailing: 1224
Street Address:
(541) 346-3116