Designing an Exhibition? Take a Page from Apple
LOS ANGELES — Entering an Apple Store is a predictably seductive experience. The crisp, minimalist setup resembles an art gallery, but the lively crowds of people and curious clicks suggest the magic works. It's a far cry from most electronics stores.
LOS ANGELES — Entering an Apple Store is a predictably seductive experience. The crisp, minimalist setup resembles an art gallery, but the lively crowds of people and curious clicks suggest the magic works. It’s a far cry from most electronics stores.
Could galleries take a page or two from the Apple Store? Almost certainly. A new article in Forbes points at the utter precision behind the stores’ success:
The Apple Store pays attention to every detail. You might think that Apple positions all its notebook computers for aesthetic reasons. That’s partly true. The tables are uncluttered and the products are clean. But the main reason notebook computers screens are slightly angled is to encourage customers to adjust the screen to their ideal viewing angle — in other words, to touch the computer!
It’s difficult to imagine a gallery or museum encouraging visitors to touch delicate paintings or installations, but with more new media shows and interactive opportunities, it’s important to remember.
The article goes on to the note the importance of “multisensory experiences,” i.e., aesthetic experiences that engage multiple senses. The look-but-don’t-touch ethos of most exhibitions could quite effectively be supplemented with more touch-friendly experiences, even if that’s a simple sheet of paper with more information about the works.
The article got me thinking about a recent blog post from Nina K Simon looking at how to make an exhibition participatory. She walks through a breathtaking number of examples, from a “love lounge” with a chalkboard encouraging you to declare what you love, to simpler interventions like meditation cushions:
Of course, I’m biased. I feel strongly that we need to provide multiple entry points to exhibitions. We need labels AND audio AND post-its AND collage-making AND games AND meditation. I am proud to see visitors increasing their dwell time, sharing their delight and enjoyment of the space, having meaningful conversations in the galleries, and generally expressing that the museum is becoming a useful place for them to explore topics near and dear to the heart (literally).
And now I’m wondering what would happen if Simon and Jobs ever had an opportunity to collaborate.
