Engaging The Visitor: Designing Exhibits That Work

"Without involved, engaged attention, the museum visitor experience is meaningless." - Stephen Bitgood.  

Engaging The Visitor addresses some of the most fundamental issues relating to interpretation, exhibition design and the visitor experience - in a format which is attractive, approachable - and above all actionable. Challenging many preconceptions, this book is firmly based on the results of gallery-based scientific research rather than speculation.

Deep and effective engagement with exhibit content is still the exception in very many museums. When most visitors pass an exhibit with only a glance, it will fail to engage. And until the visitor is engaged no informal learning - or any other satisfying experience - will happen...

Engaging The Visitor will help you answer the questions:

  1. How often do visitors really engage with the content of the exhibitions in our museum?
  2. How frequently can I really expect our visitors to be meaningfully engaged?
  3. Why do our visitors engage with some of our exhibits and not others?
  4. How can we increase our visitors' engagement through better exhibit design?

Also available: Social Design in Museums: The Psychology of Visitor Studies

This pioneering, 312-page book, with over 25 colour illustrations, includes:

1. Introduction
Visitor Engagement
The Attention-Value Model

2. Reading Interpretive Text
Deadly Sins Revisited: Exhibit Labels
Practical Guidelines for Developing Interpretive Labels
Interest and Effort as Predictors of Reading

3. Interactive Exhibits
Designing Effective Interactive Exhibits
Evaluating The Falling Feather Exhibit
Evaluating A Pepper’s Ghost Exhibit

4. Immersion
Immersion Experiences in Museums
Simulated Immersion in Exhibitions
The Visitor Immersion Experience
Sensory Impressions from a Museum Visit
Dioramas in Exhibitions

5. Bibliography

Stephen Bitgood is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Jacksonville State University, USA. A founder of the Visitor Studies Association, and of the Visitor Studies Conference, and co-editor of Visitor Studies: Theory, Research and Practice, he has spoken and published widely and has undertaken extensive research in museums, science centres and zoos focusing on how to increase the impact of exhibits by applying psychological principles.

Title: Engaging The Visitor: Designing Exhibits That Work
Pages: 316
Colour illustrations: 29
Size: 203 x 127 mm
Date: 2014
Editions: £39 [paperback] | £29 [eBook] 
ISBN: 978-1-910144-13-8 [paperback]

Problem ordering online? Please email orders@museumsetc.com
Question? Email us: hello@museumsetc.com
Guarantee: We offer all our readers an unconditional guarantee: if, at any time, you decide this book’s not for you, simply return it to us for a full and prompt refund. 



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