Museum Design: Just Let Me In!

When does a museum visit start? Some people might say, "after I pay my admission and enter the exhibit galleries."

However, there are two initial points of contact that come earlier for most visitors: your museum website and your admissions area.

Put yourself in your visitor's shoes and consider what are the simplest ways to complete the desired informational transactions? Are you making pretty nested webpages and slick (but slow-loading) Flash animations that are impossible to click past when most visitors just want hours, admissions, and directions?

Similarly, do your admissions prices, levels, and options make for quick and simple transactions, or just frustrate and annoy visitors, especially first-time visitors?

The American Museum of Natural History in New York City is the all-time champ for confusing admissions prices and options, not to mention a crazily ineffective computer-based admissions system. For example, half of the computer terminals at one of their admissions areas are only for non-member transactions. So even if everyone in line is a member, three admissions personnel (on average) just stare into space or repeatedly tell annoyed members that "this computer is only for non-members."

Also, members are supposed to receive free admission to special exhibitions --- except when the museum makes exceptions and charges extra for special exhibitions. Does this make for great customer satisfaction? Not in my case! After repeatedly running the AMNH admissions gantlet, I gave up and canceled my family membership!

So think about the "visit" that starts before your visitors start enjoying the first of your exhibit spaces.

Kaossilator: Cool Gizmo for Music Exhibits

The monkey boys at Think Geek are selling a cool mini-synthesiser by Korg with the nutty name of Kaossilator. For 200 bucks though, it seems like a great deal for a fun electronic box of possibilities for music/tech educational programs and/or exhibits.

Exhibit Maker's Bookshelf: Howtoons!

One of my favorite recurring features in MAKE magazine, and on the Web, is Howtoons.

Howtoons is sort of a graphic novel/manga/Mr. Wizard mashup that gives you instructions for creating a fun (usually sciency) DIY project. If you go for that sort of thing (and if you're already reading this blog, I guess you do!) you should check out the Howtoonsbook, which is a paperback collection of Howtoon projects.

A perfect gift for the big or little maker in your life (including yourself!)

Creative Design: Amazing Mechanical Elephant

A litle exhibit inspiration for you. An amazing mechanical elephant created by the team at Les Machines in France.

The End of Human Body Exhibitions?

This article from the LA Times reports that the California State Assembly voted 50 to 4 to approve legislation to ensure that the people whose remains are on display consented to be part of such exhibits.

Generally the bodies are dissected and preserved in a process called plastination. "Although plastination was intended to advance medicine and science, many entrepreneurs are using plastination to make outrageous profits by dissecting, mutilating and parading unwilled bodies around the world and in our state," the bill's sponsor, Assemblywoman Fiona Ma (D-San Francisco), said during Assembly debate. "Asking for consent and verification is not too much to ask."

Presumably, the Assembly's concerns arise from allegations that the "provenance" of bodies from China used in some human body exhibitions can not be adequately verified.

Personally, I found the traveling Body Worlds exhibition fascinating, if a little creepy. However, no matter what your feelings about the particular content of certain exhibitions, should governments really be determining whether a museum should present a particular exhibition or not?

Exhibit Maker's Toolkit: Skitch

Skitch is a great Mac-based tool for simple image grabbing and manipulation. Perfect for sticking annotated images (like the one above of my daughter during a recent museum visit!) into emails, reports, webpages, etc.

Skitch was developed by the fine folks at Plasq (check out their tool Comic Life also) and it can be downloaded via the Skitch website. They have a great intro video that you can watch to get a sense of what Skitch can do.

Have fun!