Our mission is to create products and experiences that inspire people. To achieve our mission we need to engage people. Most visitors to our experiences are there voluntarily. We often call the experiences we design informal learning. This type of learning can occur in a variety of places, like museums, nature centers, visitor centers, hospitals, university settings, zoos, homes, clubs and more.

The National Science Foundation defines informal learning as follows:  voluntary and self-directed, life-long, and motivated mainly by intrinsic interests, curiosity, exploration, manipulation, fantasy, task completion, and social interaction. Informal learning can be linear or nonlinear and often is self-paced and visual- or object – oriented. It provides an experiential base and motivation for further activity and learning. The outcomes of an informal learning experience in science, mathematics, and technology include a better understanding of concepts, topics, processes, and thinking in scientific and technical disciplines, as well as increased knowledge about career opportunities in these fields. Whew! This is a long yet cool definition. It illuminates how we attempt to inspire people.

To engage people in an informal learning environment we need to understand how people react to different stimuli. Our design staff has to have a general knowledge of human behavior, psychology or emotional design. If the text is too long, if it is too loud, if the colors are bland, if it is broken the visitor will not engage with the environment. At a seminar about visitor studies and prototyping at the AAM conference lead by Minda Borum and Rita Hoffstadt of The Franklin Institute, I learned about the Five Powers:

1. Attracting Power – Does the exhibit cause visitors to stop at it?

2. Holding Power – How much time is spent at the exhibit?

3. Procedural Power (for an interactive) – Does the exhibit cause visitors to use it correctly?

4. Explanatory Power – Does the exhibit convey its message?

5. Affective Power – Do visitors like it?

During this workshop we did some testing of these powers. My group observed and surveyed some visitors to The Liver exhibit. It did not pass the muster on all the powers.  Yet, by interviewing the visitors we did learn that what we think and what visitors think is often not the same thing. Prototyping, observing visitors and interviewing can help make better-informed decisions about exhibit design. As budgets allow we will be adding all of these services to our clients. We believe it puts us closer to our mission of inspiring people.

Do your exhibits have the Five Powers?