GordonGR10

Information Design ~ Reading Day 10 ~ Today I read from the Critical Reflections on Museums by Saul Carliner, PhD, CTDP. He is Director of the Education Doctoral Program and associate professor of educational technology at Concordia University in Montreal. He has written 7 books, is an industry consultant and visited 30 museums in several countries in 30 days as research for this study. I went to the Milwaukee Public Museum and Discovery World this past week. I will now attempt to match wits with Saul.

In Saul’s blog, he comments on human nature and the inherent habit of veering to familiar subjects of interest. He also points out that people will take in the information at a museum through habitual means as well. He basically noted that readers will read. Meanderers will meander and some folks will just look at stuff. Thanks Captain Obvious. He also mentioned that he shied away from tours that were in a language he couldn’t easily understand. I gotta remember that one too.

Now I’m sure good ‘ole Saul is a brainiac and could box my ears for hours – but on the subject of taking in a museum, we are both at the root of it all, consumers. We are both the customer and therefore – both right! His take on his experience and my take on mine are equally valid (as long as we both pay the admission fee). To his point, we all absorb and process information in our own unique ways. True, there are common educational tracks for general schooling, but as life long learners, we “evolve” to what works best for each of us individually. Kinda like a mouse through a maze, I went strolling through the museum drawn to the kind of cheese that I like. I’d stop and look, read and wonder at the subjects that appealed to me (and of course, the mandatory subjects on the scavenger hunt too).

As I now have had some time to reflect on my museum exercise, I too have some industry observations of my own. Our home town public museum could do itself a favor in the area of information design. Studies of traffic patterns, demographics and behavioral statistics should be in constant review. A program for continuous improvements in technology and information delivery should be in the annual operating budget. Various layers of Information Design should be incorporated where appropriate. The criteria would be to decrease noise and clutter while vastly increasing the overall muti-layered informational experience. Know any good consultants…. Saul?

Andrew+M+R11

Having been to a couple museums in and outside of Wisconsin, I feel that admission price usually reflects the quality of the experience inside. When comparing the Milwaukee Public Museum’s admission of $12.50 to Discovery World’s $16.95, the extra $4.45 was worth the increase. Discovery World offered modern design aesthetic, an inviting, open environment on the lake and far more interactivity.

When comparing Discovery World to the San Francisco Academy of Sciences the price jump of $13 to an admission fee of $29.95, while expensive, also corresponds to the experience inside. With the extra admission comes an IMAX like planetarium, indoor living rain forest, larger aquarium and a much larger facility as a whole.

When it comes to special exhibits I feel that these should be included in the ticket price because all museums should always have a rotating exhibition area. The Milwaukee Art Museum is usually good about this. It’s important for museums to always have something new, but more importantly, travel is expensive and I know I’ll never be able to travel the entire globe, which makes traveling exhibitions important. Paying a higher admission fee upfront for a constantly changing area of a museum is what brings locals back and adds to a continuing education.

Switching gears to the admission prices for websites is a topic that’s long been debated. I feel most website should be free unless they provide a service, such as ancestry.com, which I pay $15 a month for. I feel the time and human effort the site puts into gathering millions of historical documents is a service that warrants payment. They also offer tiered pricing, which is a smart move, that grants access to foreign documents at a higher monthly fee.

Another site I pay for is deviantart.com, which charges $30 per year. A premium membership adds extra junk to profile customization and the ability to sell your prints through the site, but I enjoy the ad free browsing experience along with the ability to customize search results and browsing preferences. Paying for the site also supports the development team and over the course of my time on the site I have a better user experience with each version.

The desire to pay for something comes down to whether or not you find it valuable. People often don’t like paying for something that isn’t tangible, but an enjoyable experience at a museum or on a website should be paid for just as a song or movie should; experiences such as these often require many people to create them and even more for their upkeep and distribution.

Paul-A-R10

Many of Saul Carliner’s comments fit our two recent museum experiences very well. I think one of the major points is the different learning styles that people have. Some people are visual learners, others are kinetic learners (movement) while others have to read in order to make something comprehensible. A good museum will offer information in all of the learning styles. Milwaukee Public Museum was primarily a visual and reading experience, while Discovery World offered more kinetic, hands-on, ways to learn. You could certainly see the difference in the age groups that were there. The kids were definitely button pushers while the adults were readers and observers. I remember when attending the interactive show at the Milwaukee Art Museum a year or so ago that it was mostly the children who were doing the interacting. The adults were just along for the ride. At least the kids got them there.
There is something to be said for visiting museums with other people so that you can share your experiences with them. Everyone has a different way of learning and their own perspective on things. It is not clear that Carliner thinks those differences are a good thing. At the end of his post he states that informal learning does not provide a common basis of knowledge and therefore is not conducive to carrying on informed conversations. However, the points he has made up until then support the opposite. If people have different experiences they have something to discuss, things to work out, points of view to express. Conversations that share the same points of view and are generally in agreement about most matters do not last long.
Media is also an important consideration for the reasons that Carliner pointed out. Some people just prefer one type of media over another because of familiarity, convenience or efficiency. However, some forms of media are just better at getting ideas across. The example of the cigarette rolling in our last reading assignment is a case in point. Although the images clearly showed all of the steps needed to roll a cigarette, they could not impart the particular physical techniques that are needed to create a satisfying finished product. A film or video might be better, but nothing will beat a live demonstration with verbal and emotional commentary for imparting this type of information.

Rachel+H+Final Proposal

For my final project I want to create a large scale info graph by hand. I want to show alternate driving routes from various major cities in Wisconsin (Madison, Milwaukee, Green Bay, Kenosha, Appleton, etc.) or alternate routes for the areas that I personally frequent most. I haven't decided the final locations yet. I plan on using Google maps to come up with the fastest route and then I will calculate how many gallons of gas it takes and how much it will cost. Then I will come up with the alternate routes that perhaps take a half hour longer but maybe will save you gas money. I am interested to see if driving slower, even if taking a longer route, can save money. In some cases I am sure that time is more valuable than money so it will be interesting to see it all graphed out so you can make up your mind after knowing all of the facts.