Town Squares, not Telephone Booths

The theme for this year's InterActivity conference in San Diego is "The Fabric of Belonging: Crafting Spaces for Connection and Resilience." As Children's Museum folks from around the world head to the conference later this month, many sessions will focus on programming, staffing, community partnerships, and institutional strategy.

All important stuff. But I want to talk about the exhibits themselves.

Because the moments of real connection, the ones that cut across age, language, income, and background, almost never happen at a single-user experience. Instead, they happen around a water table. At a drum circle. Around a giant set of building blocks.

Open-ended. Low-tech. And usually less interesting to do alone.

The Exhibit as Social Infrastructure

We talk a lot in the museum field about "belonging" as an institutional value. But belonging isn't a marketing problem or an outreach problem. It's a design problem.

Every time you put a single-user touchscreen into your exhibit hall, you've made a choice about social infrastructure. You've built a telephone booth when you could have built a town square.

I'm not anti-technology, but I am consistently struck by how much money museums spend on interactive technology that isolates visitors.

What Makes an Exhibit a "People Connector"?

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and I'd boil it down to a few qualities:

• It requires (or at least rewards) more than one person. The best exhibits are "connectors." Not because they force interaction, but because doing the same thing alone isn't quite as satisfying as doing it together. A giant floor piano is fun to stomp around on by yourself. But it's magical when you and a stranger make a chord or a song together.

• It has no obvious "right answer." Open-ended play invites negotiation, and negotiation builds connection. A canned simulation with a predetermined correct outcome closes that door. A well-framed, multiple-outcome construction challenge opens it.

• It works across a wide age range. Some of the most visitor-friendly exhibits are the ones where a four-year-old and a forty-year-old are equally puzzled, equally capable, equally delighted. Mixed-age play is underrated as a community-building force.

• It doesn't require reading. The best low-tech interactives are intuitive. A clear cause-and-effect relationship helps overcome many of the access issues that make connecting with an exhibit hard in the first place.

A Challenge for InterActivity Attendees

The fabric metaphor in this year's InterActivity conference theme is great. Fabric is made of many small interlocking pieces. Each thread matters. So does each exhibit choice in your museum.

If you're heading to San Diego, what specific takeaways about exhibit design for belonging and connection can you take away from your conference experiences? 

Not just aspirational language, but the actual material decisions. What new "connector" exhibits could you put into your museum? 

How can we build more town squares and fewer telephone booths?

Don't miss out on any ExhibiTricks posts! It's easy to get updates via email or your favorite news reader. Just click the "Sign up for Free ExhibiTricks Blog Updates" link on the upper right side of the blog.

Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!

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Material World: Sourcing Smarter for Museum Exhibits

Here's a confession: some of my favorite exhibit moments have not come from clever interpretive frameworks or brilliant visitor research, but from wandering the aisles of a restaurant supply store, a theatrical prop house, or a salvage yard, and thinking, "Wait. What if I used THAT?"

Materials make or break museum exhibits. Not just visually, but functionally, monetarily, and (increasingly) ethically. So let's talk about how to find better materials in smarter ways.

Look Everywhere Except the "Usual" Places

The best exhibit materials often aren't in the exhibit supply catalog. Here are some sourcing categories that don't get enough love:

Theatrical and film suppliers. Places like Rose Brand stock an astonishing range of fabrics, rigging hardware, specialty foams, and surface treatments that withstand heavy use because they're designed for stage abuse. They're also frequently cheaper than "museum-grade" equivalents.

Industrial and restaurant supply houses. Stainless steel surfaces, heavy-duty casters, food-safe containers, rubberized mats — if you need something that will survive 300 sticky-fingered visitors a day, it helps to source from industries built around that kind of punishment.

Hardware stores (go deeper than aisle 3!) Most exhibit builders know their way around Home Depot. But have you spent time in the plumbing fittings section? The electrical conduit aisle? The concrete additives shelf? Unexpected textures, forms, and structural possibilities are hiding in plain sight.

Makers and fabricators outside the museum world. Sign shops, boat builders, auto body suppliers, and custom furniture makers all work with materials and finishing techniques that translate beautifully into exhibit applications — and they often have scrap or surplus material available cheaply or for free.

Sample libraries. Material sample collections like Material ConneXion  (now part of Fashionary) catalog thousands of innovative materials from around the world — including bio-based, recycled, and engineered composites that might spark a whole new exhibit direction.

Know What You're Choosing (and Why)

Before you spec any material, ask three questions:

1. Can it survive real visitor contact?  Test it. Scratch it. Get it wet. Drop it.

2. Will it off-gas anything harmful? Especially important for enclosed or artifact-adjacent cases. The Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts has useful guidance here.

3. What happens to it at the end of the exhibit's life?

That last question matters more than ever right now.

Going Green (For Real)

Sustainability in exhibit design has moved well past "we used recycled paper in our labels." 

Ditch the foam core. Foam core takes up to 500 years to decompose, creates microplastics, and releases harmful chemicals — including styrene, identified as a carcinogen. Alternatives like Falconboard (made primarily from renewable forest products and fully recyclable) are increasingly accessible. Ask your printer what they can actually source locally before you spec anything.

Watch your wood. Composite woods like standard plywood are often bonded with formaldehyde adhesives that emit toxic fumes that are damaging to artifacts and people alike. Formaldehyde-free options are increasingly available; even Home Depot now carries FSC-certified birch plywood. Products like Medite FR (formaldehyde-free MDF with a fire rating) thread the needle between green credentials and code compliance.

Modular = sustainable.  MoMA has reduced exhibition construction waste by 82% through practices such as refurbishing and reusing display cases across exhibitions and carefully dismantling bespoke installations for donation or reuse elsewhere. Designing for disassembly isn't just an environmental win; it's a budget win for future projects.

Source locally. Looking for materials and fabrication services locally reduces transportation emissions and supports the local economy. A fabricator 20 minutes away beats one across the country, in terms of carbon footprint, communication, and the ability to do a quick site visit when things go sideways.

Resource Toolkits The Sustainable Exhibition Design & Construction Toolkit from the American Alliance of Museums is worth bookmarking. The Museum of Vancouver's SAGE Project has also developed an impressive toolkit for the selection, construction, and deconstruction of exhibitions, including a materials exchange hub concept.

New Materials Worth Knowing

A few materials on my radar right now:

Ecoresin panels are co-polyester panels with recycled content that can embed textiles, natural objects, and textures. 

Xorel is a woven textile wall covering that's eco-friendly, highly durable, and available in a wide range of patterns and textures. Great for sensory surfaces.

FLOR carpet tiles are made with renewable, recycled, and recyclable content, with the company taking back old tiles for recycling and reconstitution into new materials. 

The direct-to-substrate process uses inkjet printing directly onto substrates up to 2 inches thick, allowing you to reuse the same physical panel across multiple exhibit iterations. A big sustainability upside that's increasingly cost-effective.

The Bottom Line

Smart material sourcing isn't about finding the fanciest new product; it's about building the habit of looking in unexpected places, asking better questions before you buy, and thinking beyond the current project to what happens next.

The best material for your exhibit may be sitting in a salvage yard, a theatrical supply house, or a restaurant supply store, waiting for someone curious enough to wander in and ask, "What could this become?"

As always, I'd love to hear what unexpected materials YOU'VE found useful in your exhibit work. Let us know in the "Comments Section" below!

Don't miss out on any ExhibiTricks posts! It's easy to get updates via email or your favorite news reader. Just click the "Sign up for Free ExhibiTricks Blog Updates" link on the upper right side of the blog.

Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!

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Take It Inside! When Museums Bring the Great Outdoors In

Museum visitors want to DO things. Preferably, things that are slightly surprising, a little bit physical, and things they may not be able to do anywhere else.

That's why some of my favorite exhibit ideas flip the usual script. Instead of asking visitors to imagine the outside world from inside a building, these exhibits just... drag the outside world inside. No bus. No field trip permission slips. Just a great big "yes, and."

The Humble Sock Skating Rink

Let's start with the obvious hero of this post. The indoor sock-skating rink has quietly become one of the most visitor-beloved (and cost-effective!) temporary exhibit ideas in Children's Museums. Kick off your shoes, slide around a smooth surface on your socks, and suddenly you're a winter sport athlete — no Zamboni required.

Boston Children's Museum's Snowmazing! has been running this indoor winter experience for a remarkable 10 years now, pairing sock skating with igloo fort building and a Northern Lights-inspired art installation. 

Out in Santa Barbara, MOXI's Seaside Sock Skating takes the concept in an off-kilter direction; it's on the museum's roof,  with ocean views! They even suggest cotton socks for the best glide performance. (Science!) 

The genius of the sock rink isn't the surface material. You've taken away the barriers — cold, cost, gear, age restrictions — and just given families the pure kinetic joy of sliding around together. 

A video or graphic teaches kids about ice skating. A sock rink produces genuine delight, some wobbly balance practice, and the occasional spectacular fall.

Going Further: Other Outdoor-to-Indoor Wins

Sock rinks may be the poster child, but the broader concept has legs. Here are a few more examples worth stealing inspiration from:

The Providence Children's Museum has "Little Woods," which drops visitors into a colorful indoor woodland complete with tree climbing, caves, and animal costumes. It's not a forest, but it feels like one, and that emotional hook matters enormously.

Boston Children's Museum also features a full indoor nature exhibit called "Investigate,"  where kids and families can crawl under a turtle tank for a bug's-eye view, or handle natural specimens.

Museums that capture the sensory, physical essence of an outdoor experience and bring it indoors in an accessible, repeatable way are the ones that get return visits.

What "outdoors-in" exhibit ideas have you seen (or created!) that deserve a shoutout? Drop them in the Comments Section below!

Don't miss out on any ExhibiTricks posts! It's easy to get updates via email or your favorite news reader. Just click the "Sign up for Free ExhibiTricks Blog Updates" link on the upper right side of the blog.

Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!

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Beyond Buttons, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Analog.

I get it. You walk into a museum planning meeting and someone inevitably says, "What if we just put a touchscreen on it?" It's like the exhibition equivalent of putting bacon on everything – sure, it works, but sometimes you need to step back and remember that not every problem needs a digital solution.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a Luddite. I'm typing this on a computer, after all (shocking, I know). But there's something enjoyably subversive about creating engaging, interactive experiences that don't require a single pixel, USB port, or software update. 

The Case for Going Analog

There's something primal about physically manipulating objects. We're tactile creatures who spent thousands of years figuring out the world through our hands, not our fingertips on glass.

And here's the kicker: analog interactions are often more memorable. When was the last time you remembered a specific touchscreen interaction? Now think about the last time you turned a really satisfying crank or pulled a lever that made something dramatic happen. 

Mechanical Marvels That Actually Work

The Mighty Lever System

Nothing says "I have the power!" like a good lever. Some museums have visitors lifting actual cars with giant levers.  These exhibits demonstrate powerful mechanical principles that make visitors feel like they have superhuman strength. The key is making the payoff dramatic – don't just move a small weight, move something that makes people go "whoa."

Pro tip: A satisfying clunk when something locks into place is worth its weight in engagement metrics.

Gear Trains Tell Stories

Gears are visual poetry. They're also perfect for showing cause and effect, which is the holy grail of interactive design. Create a gear system where turning one element starts a chain reaction.

Maybe it's showing how a clock works, or how an appliance like a mixer operates. The trick is to make it detailed enough to be fascinating, simple enough to understand.

The Humble Crank

Never underestimate the power of a good crank. It's immediate, satisfying, and gives visitors a sense of control. Use it to power animations, reveal hidden information, or create sounds. The classic "crank a generator" component can power dazzling visual and physical effects, while allowing visitors to directly experience how their physical energy can transform into electrical energy. 

Making It Work in the Real World

Durability is Key

If you're creating mechanical interactions, build them like tanks. Visitors will push, pull, crank, and manipulate your exhibits in ways you never imagined. Use materials that can handle abuse and design mechanisms that fail gracefully. A broken interactive exhibit is worse than no interactive exhibit.

Clear Instructions, Obvious Affordances

Make it immediately obvious what visitors should do. If it's meant to be turned, make it look turnable. If it's meant to be pushed, make it look pushable. Don't make people guess – confusion kills engagement faster than broken technology.

Maintenance Plans Matter

Mechanical doesn't mean maintenance-free. Create exhibits that can be easily cleaned, adjusted, and repaired by your existing staff. Document everything, and make replacement parts easy to source. Future museum employees will thank you.

The Secret Sauce: Emotional Payoff

The best analog interactions create emotional responses. The surprise of a hidden compartment opening. The dramatic moment when a lever lifts something heavy. Design for those moments of delight, frustration, and ultimate satisfaction.

 

Remember, you're not just creating an activity – you're creating an experience. The best analog interactions make visitors feel smart, powerful, or surprised. Sometimes all three.

The Bottom Line

In a world of endless screens and digital overload, analog interactions offer something refreshing: direct, immediate, tactile engagement with ideas. They're reliable, memorable, and often more engaging than their digital counterparts. Plus, they won't become obsolete when the next operating system update drops.

So the next time someone suggests "just adding a touchscreen," take a deep breath and consider the alternatives. Sometimes the best way forward is backwards – or sideways, with a really good crank!

Don't miss out on any ExhibiTricks posts! It's easy to get updates via email or your favorite news reader. Just click the "Sign up for Free ExhibiTricks Blog Updates" link on the upper right side of the blog.

Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!

If you enjoy the blog, you can help keep it free to read and free from ads by supporting ExhibiTricks through our PayPal "Tip Jar"

What Fixing Broken Exhibits Has Taught Me About Smart Design

Let me paint you a picture. It's Tuesday morning, and the school groups are due to arrive in an hour. Your star interactive exhibit—the one that took six months to design and three months to build—is making that clicking sound again. You know, the one that means "expensive repair visit" in exhibit language.

Meanwhile, that simple wooden flip-book station you built as a "temporary" solution five years ago? Still going strong, still engaging visitors, and the only maintenance it needs is occasionally tightening a screw.

After four decades of watching exhibits live, die, and get resurrected more times than a soap opera character, I've learned that maintenance-friendly design isn't about dumbing things down—it's about respecting the brutal realities of public use.

The Immortals: Exhibits That Refuse to Die

Simple Mechanical Interactives: Hand cranks, pulleys, lever systems, rotating drums. These workhorses continue to operate effectively because they utilize principles that have proven successful since the Industrial Revolution. When they break, any competent handy person can fix them.

Magnetic Systems: Those "build your own molecule" exhibits with magnetic atoms? Nearly indestructible. Drop-proof and child-proof, with the only moving parts being the magnetic pieces themselves.

 

Gravity-Fed Demonstrations: Ball runs, catapults, pendulums. Physics does the work, not motors. When something goes wrong, it's usually obvious and can be easily fixed.

The Universal Laws of Exhibit Entropy

Law #1: If It Can Be Touched, It Will Be Touched Incorrectly

Design for the visitor who will push when they should pull, lean when they should stand, and somehow find the one way to use your exhibit that you never imagined.

Smart design response: Make the "wrong" way to interact either impossible or harmless. You can't push in the wrong direction if the mechanism only moves one way.

Law #2: Children Are Tiny Engineers of Destruction

Not maliciously—they're just incredibly effective at finding failure points. They apply force in unexpected directions, use exhibits as climbing equipment, and have an uncanny ability to separate components you thought were permanently attached.

Smart design response: If a six-year-old can break it, assume they will. Design accordingly.

Law #3: The Most Popular Exhibits Wear Out Fastest

Success breeds its own problems. That hands-on station that everyone loves? It's getting 10x the use you planned for.

Smart design response: Build for 5x your projected traffic, then add safety margins.

Law #4: Complex Repairs Happen at the Worst Possible Times

Murphy's Law applies doubly to museum exhibits. The touchscreen will fail right before the VIP donor tour.

Smart design response: Design for graceful degradation. When part of the exhibit fails, the rest should still function.

The Modular Mindset

Think Lego, not sculpture. Design exhibits as systems of replaceable components rather than integrated artworks.

 

Component Accessibility: Can you reach every part that might need maintenance without dismantling half the exhibit? If not, redesign.

Standard Fasteners: Use screws and bolts that are readily available at any hardware store. Avoid proprietary connectors that require special orders from manufacturers who might not exist in five years.

 

Diagnostic Simplicity: When something stops working, can a non-expert quickly identify the problem? Visual indicators, clear troubleshooting steps, and logical component organization save countless hours.

The Long Game

Maintenance-friendly design isn't about creating boring exhibits—it's about creating exhibits that can continue to engage visitors year after year. The most innovative interactive in the world is useless if it's broken half the time.

The goal isn't to eliminate maintenance, but to make it predictable, manageable, and affordable. Design exhibits that age like fine wine, not like forgotten leftovers.

Visitors don't care how clever your engineering is—they care that the exhibit works when they want to engage with it. Design for reliability, and the innovation will take care of itself.

What's your most maintenance-friendly exhibit success story? Or your biggest maintenance nightmare that taught you valuable lessons? Share your war stories in the "Comments" Section below—we can all learn from each other's triumphs and disasters.

 

Don't miss out on any ExhibiTricks posts! It's easy to get updates via email or your favorite news reader. Just click the "Sign up for Free ExhibiTricks Blog Updates" link on the upper right side of the blog.

Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!

If you enjoy the blog, you can help keep it free to read and free from ads by supporting ExhibiTricks through our PayPal "Tip Jar"

Can AI Be Your Museum Brainstorming Buddy?

Let's be honest: we've all been there. It's 3 PM on a Tuesday, and you're staring at a blank concept document, with your brain feeling like it's been replaced with cotton candy. The client wants "something interactive about local history that appeals to all ages and doesn't cost more than a decent used car."

Your internal monologue goes something like: Interactive... history... families... budget... HELP.

Enter your new creative partner: AI. 

No, it won't replace your brilliant human insights (thank goodness), but it might just save you from that deer-in-headlights moment when inspiration decides to take an extended lunch break.

The Brainstorm Before the Brainstorm

Here's the thing about AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude: they're like that friend who's read everything, remembers everything, and never gets tired of your "what if we tried..." questions. The secret sauce isn't asking AI to design your exhibit for you—it's using it to unstick your creative gears.

Instead of: "Design an exhibit about butterflies." Try: "I need 15 unexpected angles for approaching butterfly conservation that would surprise visitors who think they know everything about butterflies."

Boom. Suddenly, you're not just talking about metamorphosis (again). You're exploring butterfly migration as climate data, butterfly wing patterns as inspiration for solar panel efficiency, or the economic impact of pollinator decline on local agriculture.

Journey Mapping: Your Visitor's GPS

 Remember when we used to draw visitor journey maps on napkins and hope for the best? AI can help you think through the emotional rollercoaster your visitors are about to experience—before you build the actual rollercoaster.

Try this prompt: "Map the emotional journey of a skeptical teenager being dragged through an exhibit about [your topic]. What are their pain points, potential engagement moments, and what would make them actually tell their friends about it?"

The AI might suggest that your skeptical teen initially rolls their eyes at the entrance, gets grudgingly intrigued by a hands-on station, feels genuinely surprised by an unexpected connection to their world, and leaves with one concrete thing to think about. That's a roadmap for your design decisions.

The "Yes, And..." Partner

AI excels at the improv comedy rule of "yes, and..."—it builds on your ideas instead of shutting them down. Having a creative block about how to make 18th-century farming techniques relevant to urban kids?

You: "What if we connected historical farming to modern urban gardening?"

AI: "Yes, and what if visitors could compare the efficiency of colonial crop rotation with vertical farming techniques, using the same square footage?"

You: "And they could actually plant something to take home..."

AI: "And track their plant's growth against historical weather data from the same region..."

Suddenly, you've an exhibit that bridges centuries, connects to current sustainability concerns, and provides visitors with a lasting takeaway.

Pro Tips for AI Collaboration

Be specific with context: "I'm designing for a 200-square-foot space in a children's museum with a $15K budget and weekly school groups of 25 kids" gets you better suggestions than "design something for kids."

Ask for alternatives: "Give me 5 completely different ways to teach this concept" will stretch your thinking beyond your first idea.

Play devil's advocate: "What would a museum visitor who hates technology think about this exhibit?" helps you design for all your audiences.

Get granular: "What should visitors be thinking, feeling, and doing in the first 30 seconds of this experience?" forces specificity.

The Human Touch (Still Required)

Here's what AI can't do: understand your specific community, navigate your institution's politics, or know that your facilities manager has strong opinions about anything that plugs into the wall. It can't feel the energy of your space, or know that Mrs. Henderson brings her third-grade class every October, and they always ask about dinosaurs, even in the art gallery.

AI is your museum brainstorming accelerator, not your replacement. 

Don't miss out on any ExhibiTricks posts! It's easy to get updates via email or your favorite news reader. Just click the "Sign up for Free ExhibiTricks Blog Updates" link on the upper right side of the blog.

Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!

If you enjoy the blog, you can help keep it free to read and free from ads by supporting ExhibiTricks through our PayPal "Tip Jar"

"Stealing" Ideas from Everyone. What Apple Stores, Airports, and Playgrounds Can Teach Museums About Visitor Experience.

Here's a confession: some of my best exhibit ideas have come from places that have nothing to do with museums. That breakthrough wayfinding solution? Inspired by IKEA's store layout. The interactive that finally got teenagers engaged? I borrowed the concept from a skateboard shop in Portland.

Museum professionals sometimes act like we're the only industry that cares about visitor experience, but the truth is, we're surrounded by brilliant design solutions just waiting to be adapted. The question isn't whether to "borrow" ideas from other industries—it's how to "steal" smartly.

The Great Idea Heist: Where to Look

Retail: The Masters of "Just One More Thing"

Walk through any well-designed store, and you'll see visitor flow management that puts most museums to shame. Retailers have spent billions figuring out how to guide people through spaces, create desire, and encourage exploration.

What They Do Right:

• Sight lines that draw you deeper: You can always see something interesting ahead.

• Clear navigation without being obvious: You know where you are and where you're going.

• Strategic placement of "impulse" experiences: High-interest items at decision points.

• Varied pacing: Busy areas followed by calm spaces, creating rhythm.

Museum Takeaway: That "featured artifact" placement at the end of your gallery hallway? Pure retail psychology. Visitors see it from the entrance and naturally move toward it, encountering your other content along the way.

Theme Parks: Emotional Journey Architects

Disney didn't invent storytelling, but they perfected the art of emotional pacing in physical spaces. Every step of a Theme Park experience is choreographed to build anticipation, deliver a payoff, and leave you wanting more.

What They Do Right:

• Line design that's part of the experience: The wait becomes preparation for the main event.

• Layered storytelling: Multiple levels of detail for different types of visitors.

• Transition spaces: Clear beginnings, middles, and ends to experiences.

• Multi-sensory immersion: Sound, smell, temperature, and lighting work together.

Museum Takeaway: Your exhibit entrance isn't just a doorway—it's the opening scene of your story. What if you treated it like the loading area of a theme park ride, building anticipation for what's coming?

Playground Design: The Physics of Fun

Playground designers are brilliant experience architects. They create spaces that encourage specific behaviors, accommodate different ages and abilities, and somehow make parents want to linger while kids are completely absorbed.

What They Do Right:

• Multiple difficulty levels in one space: Challenging for experts, accessible for beginners.

• Natural supervision points: Parents can watch from comfortable positions.

• Flow that prevents bottlenecks: Multiple paths to the same destinations.

• Materials that age gracefully: Built to withstand weather and heavy use.

Museum Takeaway: That hands-on science station where kids naturally help each other figure things out? That's playground psychology at work—creating spaces where collaboration happens organically.

Other Industry-Specific Lessons That Translate to Museums

From Coffee Shops: The Art of Comfortable Lingering

The Lesson: Different seating for different social configurations (solo work, couples, small groups, large gatherings)

Museum Translation: Create varied spaces within your galleries—standing height for quick interactions, comfortable seating for deeper engagement, communal areas for group discussions.

From Bookstores: Discovery by Wandering

The Lesson: Mix of organization and serendipity—you can find what you're looking for, but you'll stumble across things you didn't know you wanted.

Museum Translation: Clear thematic organization with unexpected connections and cross-references that reward exploration.

From Restaurants: Pacing and Appetite

The Lesson: Building anticipation, managing expectations, and knowing when people need a break from intense experiences.

Museum Translation: Heavy content followed by lighter interactions, complex ideas broken up with hands-on activities, and "palate cleansers" between intense emotional experiences.

From Hotels: Creating Immediate Atmosphere

The Lesson: Great hotel lobbies establish mood and expectations within seconds of entry. They tell you what kind of experience you're about to have.

Museum Translation: Your lobby and entrance sequence should immediately communicate your museum's personality and prepare visitors for your content.

Permission to Experiment

Museums sometimes suffer from "museum-ness"—the assumption that we have to look and feel like "traditional" museums. But your visitors don't live in museums. They live in a world of retail spaces, entertainment venues, and public spaces that have evolved sophisticated approaches to human experience design.

Your visitors' expectations are shaped by the best customer experiences they have anywhere, not just in other museums. If Starbucks has figured out how to make waiting in line a pleasant experience, we can learn from that. If IKEA can guide people through a complex warehouse while making it feel like an adventure, maybe we can too.

Great ideas don't care about industry boundaries. The principles that make a bookstore browsable, a playground engaging, or a restaurant memorable can make your museum more effective.

Your next breakthrough exhibit idea might be waiting for you at the grocery store, the airport, or that well-designed playground down the street. Keep your eyes open—inspiration is everywhere!

Don't miss out on any ExhibiTricks posts! It's easy to get updates via email or your favorite news reader. Just click the "Sign up for Free ExhibiTricks Blog Updates" link on the upper right side of the blog.

Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!

If you enjoy the blog, you can help keep it free to read and free from ads by supporting ExhibiTricks through our PayPal "Tip Jar"

Museum/Exhibit/Design Inspiration: The American Visionary Art Museum's Seven Education Goals

What inspires you?  What pushes you to think about your work in new and different ways?

Given that my previous post about Hayao Miyazaki's Museum Manifesto seemed to resonate with and inspire so many ExhibiTricks readers, I thought I would share a similar "manifesto" of sorts, courtesy of the American Vision Art Museum (AVAM) --- one of my very favorite places to visit!

If you have yet to become familiar with AVAM, it is an art museum located near the Inner Harbor of Baltimore.  The buildings and exhibits pulse with energy and excitement that is infectious and the majority of the pieces on display were made not by formally trained artists but rather by an eclectic group of very creative people. To quote from the AVAM website:

"Visionary art as defined for the purposes of the American Visionary Art Museum refers to art produced by self-taught individuals, usually without formal training, whose works arise from an innate personal vision that revels foremost in the creative act itself." 

But what I'm interested in sharing today are the Seven Education Goals that guide AVAM.  They strike me as admirable goals for any museum or any creative person (which really means everybody, doesn't it?)

AVAM's Seven Education Goals

• Expand the definition of a worthwhile life.

• Engender respect for and delight in the gifts of others.

• Increase awareness of the wide variety of choices available in life for all ... particularly students.

• Encourage each individual to build upon his or her own special knowledge and inner strengths.

• Promote the use of innate intelligence, intuition, self-exploration, and creative self-reliance.

• Confirm the great hunger for finding out just what each of us can do best, in our own voice, at any age.

• Empower the individual to choose to do that something really, really well.

I hope you continue this month choosing to do something really, really, well!

Don't miss out on any ExhibiTricks posts! It's easy to get updates via email or your favorite news reader. Just click the "Sign up for Free ExhibiTricks Blog Updates" link on the upper right side of the blog.

Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!

If you enjoy the blog, you can help keep it free to read and free from ads by supporting ExhibiTricks through our PayPal "Tip Jar"

Playing at Scale

Is "Bigger" really "Better"? It could be when you are talking about some types of interactive exhibit experiences and immersive spaces.

Scaling up familiar experiences like tabletop games and toys often provides an interesting design twist and can add new kinds of visitor opportunities -- especially those that foster multi-user engagement.

For example, the photo at the top of this post shows a giant board game about different types of birds featured in ancient Roman mosaics at a historic Basilica in Bulgaria. Not only does scaling up this game create a large attraction, but it also encourages multiple people to participate in playing the game.

Similarly, giant chess sets are often seen at various outdoor venues, including parks and botanical gardens. It's fun to encounter an unexpected change in scale -- and to play a quick match with someone!

Tapping into nostalgia while changing the scale of a classic game or toy can even serve as an attraction at a trade show, as evidenced by the giant "Operation" game shown below.

Keeping things large-scale but changing contexts can also be an interesting design approach.  Subway hopscotch, anyone?

Lastly, maybe the successful Meow Wolf installations around the country could be considered funky, life-sized dollhouses?

If your smaller design ideas fail, maybe it's worth playing at scale!

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Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!

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Editing Your Exhibits

"In art, economy is always beauty."  ~ Henry James

There's a tendency for folks who are new(er) to developing museum exhibits to want to jam as many concepts (or objects or exhibit components ...) into a space as possible.  It's almost as if they don't trust their ideas to carry the visitors along and instead feel that more of EVERYTHING would be better.

It's natural when imagining a new empty museum building or exhibition gallery to feel compelled to fill all the spaces and walls with stuff (and museums have lots of stuff!) But your visitors will be better served if you take a step back and resist that urge.

Aside from the truism that "sometimes the easiest way to fix an exhibit is to change the label," what are some easy ways to edit your exhibits?  Here are three things to keep in mind when editing:

 

BEFORE OPENING: What's the Big Idea?  What essential parts of your exhibition's story arc can't be removed? Keep those and junk the rest. This is especially important when your exhibition ideas are tied to large objects or component sets that can't be easily moved (or removed!) after opening.

DURING INSTALLATION: Be on the lookout for duplicate sets of materials or too many loose parts.  This is a common problem in Maker/Tinker-type spaces --- does every workstation need a complete set of markers, colored pencils, cutting devices, and glues, or could you cluster these things in materials stations to reduce the clutter and chaos?  Similarly, many Children's Museums or Early Learner exhibition areas have Puppet Theater components --- but do you need multiple complete sets of puppet figures (like fantasy figures or animals) instead of rotating through one thematic set at a time? 

AFTER OPENING: Evaluate (and edit) by observing visitors.  Set aside time to watch your visitors move through your exhibition spaces.  Are there "dead spots" where nobody ends up? What could you shift around physically or conceptually to change those traffic patterns?  Similarly, if certain exhibits seem constantly overcrowded, are there ways to create multiple stations to spread out the visitor interactions?

Of course, exhibition editing should be an ongoing and iterative process.  Remember the words attributed to an anonymous Exhibit Developer:  

Create without fear; edit without mercy! 

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Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!

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Museum/Exhibit/Design Inspiration: Disney Research

Many museum folks dislike Disney and its theme parks. But even if you're not a Disney fan, it's worth checking out what the Disney Research folks (and their research partners) are up to.

On the Disney Research website, they present research papers and show videos of some of their cool concepts like "Stuntronics" (which uses robotic technology to produce stunt-double animatronics)  or "Magic Bench" (pictured below) which introduces "mixed reality" experiences and characters into an environment without headsets. 

The Disney Research website offers dozens of inspirational ideas (including, in many cases, information about materials used) that can really push you to consider new technological possibilities for your projects -- even if you have to adapt them to museum-sized budgets! (Paper Electric Generators, anyone?)

For more information, visit the Disney Research website and check out the DisneyResearchHub on YouTube as well. 

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Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!

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A Google Search is NOT Exhibit Development

First, let me state that I really like Google --- I've even been to the Googleplex.

But Google has a tendency to erode exhibit research and let some museum folks think that a Web-infused shortcut is a substitute for the tricky work of actually understanding and connecting ideas.

The Web is a great purveyor of information. Still, bits and bursts of information do not necessarily equal knowledge --- the type of deep understanding of a subject that leads to compelling stories and exhibitions. (This is also why many "digital panaceas" like AI applied to exhibition development are often so trivial, but that's for a future posting ...) 

Recently, I've been bumping up against three types of Google abusers during the exhibit development process. These are perfect examples of the axiom that "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing."

1) The Google "Expert" This first googly-eyed abuser is really someone who should know better because they are often experts in their respective fields. I've recently worked on several science-related exhibits where content experts on the exhibition team just sent links or URLs (or cut-and-paste sections of web pages) as responses to specific questions about scientific content.

Ummm ... I could do that Google search myself! How about providing nuanced advice or expertise if you're an advisor or exhibit team expert? Otherwise, why bother having exhibition advisors in the first place?

2) But Google says ...  The second miscreant always does a quick Google search of a particular exhibit content topic or material, and if the first (or first few) Google "hits" somehow differ from the direction the exhibition is heading, they'll pipe up with, "But Google says .." whether they actually have the foggiest notion of what's actually being considered.

Recently, a museum administrator claimed we couldn't use a particular item in an exhibit demonstration because "Google says it's dangerous."  Even though I produced the correct references and material safety data sheets, that particular idea was dropped from the exhibit programming.

Here's a news flash: The top results in a Google search (or Wikipedia entry or AI query) can often be misleading, if not completely incorrect. Web searches are a place to start, but to set Google as the ultimate arbiter of exhibition content, design, or activities is just plain silly.

3) The Google "Quick Draw Artist"  This last item is as much an etiquette issue as an exhibit development one.  Namely, people whipping out their screen-based devices to poke and search on -- even in the middle of a conversation.  Checking email and taking "Google potshots" during exhibit team meetings or discussions is just plain rude.  If we're taking the time to schedule an in-person meeting, can't we just turn off the screens for a bit?

What do you think?  Is Google gumming up your exhibit development process?

Let us know in the Comments section below!

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Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!

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Being Braver

I have been studying Bulgarian for the last year or so with an excellent (and extremely patient) tutor based in Sofia, named Billyana.  The other day, during our Zoom lesson, Billyana reminded me to "Be Brave!"

For me, learning a new language as an adult is paradoxical.  You need to acknowledge, right upfront, that you will be making mistakes -- even if you don't want to make those mistakes.  It may be that to really learn a new language, you need to make LOTS of mistakes! And it is important to learn from those mistakes.

So, when Billyana tells me to "Be Brave," it's a shorthand way of encouraging me to dive in and do my best and make mistakes. можело!

Being "braver' carries over to other aspects of life, of course, including museum work. Your first attempt at creating an exhibition or museum program is unlikely to be "perfect." You'll likely need to encounter a few setbacks before you end up with a really great program or exhibit.

Maybe that's why I enjoy doing exhibit prototyping so much. Prototyping actually gives you permission to make mistakes, learn from those mistakes, and bring "brave" ideas and energy to your work.

I hope this post encourages you to be "braver" this week in your own creative work!

 

Благодаря Биляна!

 

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Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!

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Exhibit Design Inspiration -- Decisions, Decisions!

Sometimes as part of a museum exhibit experience, we'd like the users to make a choice of some sort -- "Which historical figure do you want to find out about?"  "Choose one of these six minerals to test ..." "Did your animal survive the winter?" and so on.

While these kinds of decision points as part of an interactive experience can be handled by a digital/computer device or (gasp!) some sort of Artificial Intelligence application, I'm a big fan of a decidedly more "old school" analog approach -- incorporating the devices used in board games (dice, spinners, flippers, carnival wheels, etc.) to provide different content or experiential choices for museum visitors.

Why use things like dice or spinners in an exhibition instead of a randomized digital equivalent?

Here are a few reasons:

SOCIABILITY 

Watching a spinning carnival wheel or having several people throw dice to make a choice in an exhibition is inherently a more social experience than one person hunching over a touch screen.

SUSTAINABILITY

Spinners or dice don't need to be plugged in.

ACCESSIBILITY

Physical selection devices can be used by people with a wide range of abilities.  For example, all these "old school" game devices can be set up so that users with low or no vision can still participate.

SCALABILITY

Game elements can also easily scale up or down. Large-scale game elements add to the "sociability" factor mentioned above.

Check out this example below from a nature game (about geese!) I saw during my last trip to Bulgaria.

TESTABILITY

Simple selection devices can be easily mocked up when testing exhibit prototypes, or just by doing a quick Google or Amazon search for "game piece suppliers," you can find lots of good places to buy all sorts of pieces to use for testing or in finished exhibit components.

In that regard, while researching this post, I came across a great website boardgamegeek.com. In addition to having all sorts of information about, and reviews of, board games, the site also has this handy webpage that provides an alphabetical listing of online outlets that sell game pieces and related materials. 

FAMILIARITY

Most, if not all, of your museum visitors will automatically know how to use a carnival wheel or set of dice.

MAINTAINABILITY

Last but not least, these low-tech items are very durable and easily maintained or replaced.  Even better, all of these items can be self-contained -- that is, without loose parts.  Even dice can be put into spinning cages or the awesome Pop-O-Matic, so they don't go astray.

So, why not take a chance (roll the dice!) and incorporate some "old school" physical game elements into your next exhibit design or prototyping session?

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Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!

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Successful Imperfection

The other day one of my sons wanted to cook up a little surprise for our family.  He worked hard to make some onion bhaji based on a recipe that one of his college friends taught him.  (You can try making some of your own bhajis by following this recipe.)

Everyone enjoyed the special appetizers and found them quite tasty, but I noticed my son was a little upset, and I asked him what the problem was.  He was disappointed that the bhaji hadn't turned out exactly how he had hoped and had actually thrown some of them away because he didn't think they were "good enough" to serve.

We are often our own worst critics, and many times the fear of "less than perfect" paralyzes our work. 

Sometimes parts of an exhibition or a new program won't be 100% complete or be *perfect* on opening day -- and while that might gnaw at us as creators, our visitors are usually focused on enjoying the new exhibits or programs we've created.

Let's continue to learn from our failures, but let's also take time to savor our "imperfect" successes.

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Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!

If you enjoy the blog, you can help keep it free to read and free from ads by supporting ExhibiTricks through our PayPal "Tip Jar"