I haven't gone back over our notes, but in the early stages of our planning for the redesign of the "permanent" interpretive galleries of the Oregon Historical Society in Portland in 1994, we asked a variety of museum visitors to create several maps of the Oregon History gallery that was then available. We were interested, particularly, in how well visitors could reconstrust the major conceptual or thematic divisions of the gallery; whether they could recall key artifacts or key concepts, and which was more important; whether there were architectural, lighting, or sensory impressions that were as "memorable" as the ostensible content of the exhibit, whether visitors could elaborate on the levels of complexity within a single element of the exhibit; and so on. We learned a great deal about different elements of the museum's basic constituency viewed Oregon history, and their own place within it -- which was radically different from the assumptions made by museum curators many years ago in planning that particular exhibit. It was relatively less valuable in exploring general patterns of visitor behavior, as the exhibit studied was rather different from anything we were planning. We found it useful, by the way, to pass out a series of almost-blank plans rather than have participants work on the same plans for the whole session. We videotaped the proceedings, but I haven't gone back to review the tape for some time. Good luck! Richard Rabinowitz, President, American History Workshop, [log in to unmask] On Wed, 22 Nov 1995, William H. Stirrat wrote: > I am thinking about trying some conceptual mapping, asking visitors to draw > a map of our exhibit hall, as they remember it. Do any of you, who have > tried this or something similar, have any suggestions? My goal is to gain > some idea of how various audiences "see" our hall. > > Thanks. > > Sincerely, > Bill > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > William H. Stirrat (Bill) > Evaluator/Market Researcher ? ! > Our Minnesota Science Hall o > Science Museum of Minnesota /( )\ > 30 East 10th Street /\ > St. Paul, MN 55101 > [log in to unmask] > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >