By: Inas Essa
Evaluation highlights the results of any activity; as such, exhibition evaluation is key to figuring out how successful the exhibition is/was and what should be further implemented or eliminated. While there are several categories to be evaluated in an exhibition, such as the setting, messages delivered, and so on, evaluating different behavioral categories should not be overlooked during this process.
Key Factors of a Good Interactive Exhibit
Through designing interactive exhibits, the audience is invited to explore, ask questions, and seek answers in a more enriching way. In this way, they become active and engaged explorers who seek more engagement and stay longer at the exhibit.
In light of this, interactivity is described as the interaction between an exhibit and person(s) that results in different outcomes from the exhibit; an interactive exhibit is:
- Surprising: It captures the public's interest, creates curiosity, and draws crowds to it; this could include a surprising phenomenon, a response, or a cognitive paradox.
- Clear/goal-oriented: Once it has captured the visitors' interest, it is important to get introduced as quickly as possible to its purpose and what problem it addresses.
- Repeatable: If the exhibition is about exploring a phenomenon, the same stimuli must give the same response, otherwise the exhibit is unstable.
- Immediate: Setting a high tempo for the whole atmosphere at a science center is important to keep visitors engaged. To keep this level of engagement, the stimuli in the exhibit should give the visitor a clear response in a few seconds. It is also important not to be so quick in order not to lead the user to lose focus because of so many changes occurring simultaneously in the exhibition. In this case, enough space between exhibits or small separate rooms will help visitors stay focused.
- Socializing: Exhibits that require cooperation bring people together to discuss or directly participate, which deepens the engagement of the visitors. Also, exhibitions that have elements of competition create engagement among those using the exhibit and among those watching; yet, it should not lead to interrupting the one who uses it. This kind of exhibit stimulates the development of physical skills more than cognitive learning, which requires reflection.
Related: Why Visitors’ Interaction with Facilitators Beats Signs and Guidebooks
Setting a good level of complexity is crucial since visitors have different levels of knowledge. In order not to leave visitors feeling helpless, lost, or frustrated because of the level of complexity introduced to them, there should be a trigger or initiative from the facilitator’s part in which they should make the mission clear for the visitor and indicate where exactly to start exploring the exhibits. The threshold to get started must be low and captivating enough to capture the visitor’s interest, while the one leaving the exhibit should be high.
Exhibition Evaluation
Exhibit evaluation should cover the input, output, and sequence of the whole process, instead of looking only at the final results. Speaking of which, besides preparing surveys that cover the user experience and how they felt during the visit, staff should pay attention to the following behavioral categories, which give a clear and immediate result:
- Looking at (exhibit set, label, additional text, screen, worksheets, other visitors doing experiments, close-up examination).
- Recording (taking notes, completing worksheets, drawing, taking photos, or filming).
- Talking about (past experience related to the exhibit, discussing the function of the exhibit, discussing the science of the exhibits like theoretical concepts, reading instructions to others, reading other information to others).
- Handling (playing with exhibits in a way functionally not intended by the designer, using hands-on exhibits as intended, cooperating, testing variables, helping others with hands-on, trying to find out how the exhibit is working until the first operation of the exhibit, repeating the activity after the first successful operation, handling roughly or destructively).
- Listening to (tape or film in the exhibit, others directing or explaining function whether they are educators, facilitators, or parents, others directing or explaining the science of the exhibit).
- Moving away from the exhibit intentionally or interrupted by an external force like a teacher calling to leave the center.
- Other activities (display indicators of positive emotions, like laughing, smiling, and expressing excitement; indicators of not indented emotions, like crying, screaming, shouting, or rude movements; or anything that draws attention away from exhibits, like talking about non-related things to the exhibits—this should be significant and not a quick look away.
Looking closely at these behavioral categories plays a key role in enhancing visitors' experience as they manifest how visitors feel and interact with the exhibits in a deeper way than answering well-set questions that they may find not exactly evaluating their experience. In this sense, designing further exhibits becomes a more beneficial process for visitors and staff.
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