For your second museum field trip, you all went to The Works together, so it doesn't make sense to have you read and respond to each other's photos & captions, right? I had a good time listening to you talk in class

about your developing "eye" for museum exhibit design and decisions about signage--content, placement, form, style. And then spending more time with each of your photos/captions gave me a chance to really see that you're becoming discriminating museum-goers. Kaye and I will look forward to seeing how your 2 field trips influence the way you think about your exhibit's purpose and delivery, including signage content and form.

The Works

Since everyone seemed to take photos of close ups of the signage, I chose to look at them from another perspective. What could be improved. Overall, I enjoyed the trip to The Works and I felt most of the musuem was APE, however I felt the signage didn't really draw the visitor in.

This was their opening sign, which I did really like as the inside of the "O" moved so it looked like it was spinning. I felt it grabbed the visitors attention because of it's placement within the exhibit. It wasn't directly in the front, but more in the middle of the exhibit which allowed for the visitor to immerse into the room.

This signage really got my attention just because of how small the font was. It was a really cool exhibit, but it was hard to want to read a lot about it as the font size was small and there was a lot of text. I felt that the creator of the exhibit could have just created a little blurb about what was happening. 

This exhibit didn't have any signage near it, which was different to me. When I first approached it, I didn't notice any signs, so it left the visitor to understand on their own. Although this was pretty self explainitory, I felt a few bigger signs that helped show steps would have been helpful.

Lastly, in the design lab most of it was APE and hands on which didn't require a ton of signage, which was why I did like these signs. I thought the abstract viewpoint was interesting and it was different from any other signs I had seen in a musuem. 

The Works Museum visit

The Works Museum Visit

Signs on the main floor:

All the signs on the main floor had the same layout. I appreciated this because then I knew what to look for when I wanted to find out more about about an exhibit. I like the bold colors, it definitely draws my eye to the sign. I also like the headings and find the picture is useful for visual learners. The splash of blue makes it easy to see what each exhibit is. This design inspired my own layout for my sidebar. The content is laid out like most museum exhibits with a variation of the 'To Do', 'Notice' and 'What's Going On' section.

side note:  I would like to incorporate elements from the Mill City signs as well. I still love the recipe cards from Mill City and hope to use some elements from that sign as well, namely using an interesting shape that relates to the topic. 

The layout for the signs in the design lab is a little bit different. The color scheme is similar, with a purple and orange border, but instead of the title of the exhibit in blue, this time it is green. The design lab signs read more like instructions or challenges. This one tells you to take one scoop of foam balls and toothpicks and try and add onto the sculpture already on the table. There is also a reminder not to take anything home at the top. This is is bold, boxed in, and at a different angle than the rest of the text to help set it apart so people will notice it. This inspired me with our own group signage. Our sidebars don't have to be huge tri-folds, but could be letter sized papers. The only struggle is how much to fit on the paper without looking cluttered.

The exhibits

I went once with the girls from class and then took my family the next day. It was great to actually go to a museum with children and watch how they interact with the exhibits and how long they stay at each one. There were two clear winners for my family. The first one was the kinex cars.

At this exhibit, visitors could build a car or any sort of wheeled vehicle with kinex blocks. They can race them, watch how they go down the ramp, or time their speed. One child I noticed tested his vehicle, modified it, tested it, modified it.... the whole time we were in the downstairs part of the museum. Everyone in the family spent lots of time building their own vehicles (lots of different designs) and then we raced each other. This exhibit had active engagement and we spent a lot of time there as well. I think if we went back the kids would be excited to build cars again and bring with them the knowledge they gained from previous interactions.

The second big hit of the day was in the design lab. The kids could build structures with magnets. At first the kids played around with the magnets and then slowly started to build things. Yuan focused on her own design and Jedi made something pictured on the challenges. Then they switched, Jedi built blocks of magnets and investigated how strong the magnets were. Yuan and Bry made a fancy cube that was pictured in the challenge as well. At one point it drew us all in to try and help them make it. 

I think this one was also active and prolonged, we spent over an hour in the design lab. I think the other thing that was great about these two exhibits is that the whole family could get involved, it wasn't one person interacting and the rest of the family watching, everyone had their hands on something. 

And Justine look! Remember your paper tower?

It was taped to the door when I went the next day!

The Works

 I was very impressed with what The Works has to offer for children and adults of all ages. I was really impressed with how many family engineering nights they have. Overall I felt the museum was excellent.

This was one of my favorite signs from the museum. This sign caught my attention as soon as we walked into the museum. The only complaint I have about this sign is that it is not capitalized.

One thing that I noticed with multiple signs in the museum was the bold blue and white writing. There was also a "Try This!" , "What's Going On?", and "So What?". I felt this was great for children and adults. These little cues helped a child become involved with the exhibit.

Upstairs there was a huge room that was essentially devoted to engineering. Children were able to build skyscrapers and were able to apply them to the scale that is taped here on the wall. The sign on the top asks all guests to help keep the exhibit clean. I thought this was brilliant.

I took this picture because I felt that it was a great sign for children. Having an image for the children to identify with I felt was really beneficial. I also enjoyed the questions that prompted discovery.

This exhibit had multiple little booklets that children could use to discover this little bug. The children could then create their own pattern for the bug.

This was also one of my favorite sign. This sign I felt really grabbed the attention of visitors. The best part of the sign was that visitors could interact on the back side. Visitors were also able to see how the sign works as well.

@ The Works!

All in all I'd say that The Works definitely lived up to my expectations.  They know how to create a good hands-on exhibit.  I especially enjoyed the upstairs Design Lab.  It included four very hands-on exhibits that encouraged visitors to engineer with fairly everyday materials.

 

I made this! Hooray for geometry!

One of the Design Lab exhibits that I enjoyed was the Magnetic Structures table.  The magnetic balls and rods themselves were very enticing and easy to build with without any instruction.  However, the signage also encouraged more directed play, using many pictures and some thought provoking questions. 

High quality signage and exciting materials

I also like that the there were two signs at two different levels of difficulty.  One included step-by-step instructions with very straightforward, simple language.  The other was more open-ended.  It encouraged visitors to think more deeply.  My one complaint with this signage is the "Dear Families..." note that asks visitors to disassemble their creations. Some of exhibit developers in our APE exhibit book mentioned the importance of allowing visitors to admire others creations.  It is a form of visitor interaction that can encourage individuals to explore the exhibit more thoroughly.

The Paper Skyscrapers exhibit was also in the Design Lab.

These graphics are to die for.

The signage on the jars where the rulers and scissors for the challenge were kept interested me.  

See how the layout also increases ease of reading?

There was another sign, but this conveyed everything that the visitor needs in 20 words or less.  And it is located in creative spot, where the visitor naturally looks as she sits down at the exhibit table.  I am finding that where signage is place is just as important as what it says.

About half of the exhibits on the main floor were less APE-like.  They were all hands-on, but less intuitive and less open-ended.

Bold lettering + careful placement = easy reading

This pulley exhibit,  for example, confused me at first. I wasn't quite sure what to do.  Then I discovered that all there was to do at the exhibit was pull on each of the three pulleys.  The exhibit looks very clean and well put together.  I like the signage on the wall.  However, I found this exhibit pretty boring.  Most of my time at it was spent reading the very wordy signage (four paragraphs in 14pt font!) 

Still, most of the exhibits were great. I look forward to working with The Works in the future as a teacher.

Bird's Eye View

Hi All, After looking at your photos and reading your captions more carefully, I developed a list of qualities you seem to favor when it comes to museum signage. The signage presents a challenge--doesn't explain exactly what visitors should do Words are minimal--only what's necessary to getting a point across Text invites immediate hands-on interaction Purposeful placement of signage Text encourages deeper understanding w/o being overwhelming in either word count or structure Text is concise (are you seeing a pattern?) Typeface size is appropriate, and sometimes varied with thought about how the size might affect visitors' attention Font choice is readable and consistent Signs are colorful Sign shapes often complement the content of an exhibit (recipe-card shapes, for example) Signs sometimes have texture Signs don't always include print text, but often diagrams, maps, or charts If you're interested in learning more about Museology, including where to go for degrees in this field, check out the Princeton Review site here: http://www.princetonreview.com/GradPrograms.aspx?page=1&gpid=87 You need to register (it only takes a minute). Happy creating! Dr. K

Mill City Trip

I chose this text example because of the different font sizes that were included with the photo. It allowed for the visitor to bring their attention to different aspects of this text.

This was a consistent style of text throughout the exhibit, it was very eye catching and it allowed for the reader to get a piece of information about the information without havng to read further.

I felt that this piece of the exhibit did show APE aspects, however, as a visitor it did not provoke prolonged engagement.

This figure was extremely eye catching to me, as it was a diagram that drew me into the text.

I felt this was another example of APE but did not exhibit prolonged engagement. 

I felt that this was a good exhibit but wasn't APE as there was a known understanding of what the visitor would be taking away.