Let’s use a projector and make our content huge, on the wall of the lobby! — At night? — No, during the day! — But our lobby is all glass, and we’re in Arizona. — That doesn’t matter! — But our projector can’t compete with the big light bulb in the sky. — What big light bulb?

Mission-driven organizations are rarely in the tech business. But they get saddled with plenty of experiential media tech anyway. One day soon, we all know that sparkly new tech will misbehave. So how can we make our tech-heavy exhibitions less prone to failure?

The starting pistol fires. The 4x100 relay race is on. Each runner runs, then hands a baton to their next teammate. For the team to finish, each runner must finish. If any runner is delayed, that delays the team. If anyone fails with an injury, the team fails. The team is interdependent.

There are two tricks that are so good, they work every time. So good, they work on experts who know the trick. This is one of those. This works even if the budget is low. Even if you just did it last time, or in the same room. Even if the subject doesn’t fit.

Reader C.L. wrote in, asking about that time Phil & Monique tried to outdo each other with increasingly bad ideas for touchscreens. Phil won with “Touch the screen to hear messages from each donor.” The question was, why was that the worst idea?

Our visitors are surrounded by media that is better-funded and better-produced than anything we will ever do. In a fair fight, we lose. Make it unfair. Capitalize on what makes exhibition media unique — it’s exhibition media.

Let’s imagine two exhibition experiences, which I will now invent at random: 1. A giant, 10 foot tall, 20 foot wide, high resolution, interactive media wall. 2. A giant, 10 foot tall, 20 foot wide red chain-link fence.

Visitors don’t already have our historic landscape. They don’t already have our landmark building. They don’t already have our rare collection. But they might already have the same media technology we’re planning if we’re not thoughtful.

Here are the last three. D. Separating narratives: The next concern is conflicting narration (different narrators saying different things). Just keep these distant enough. Test it. Distant voices are less distracting than you think.

Here are six solutions. The first is mind-blowing to some, but the most useful by far: Allow overlaps. Total elimination isn't desirable. Ambient overlaps make spaces feel normal. (Ambient: no loudness, catchy melodies, or narration.) You can have way more overlaps than you think.

In the competition for Most-Worried-About Technical Aspect of Exhibitions, there can only be one Greatest Of All Time: Sound bleed. If I had a dollar for every time I have been asked if we’ll have sound bleed problems ….

Here's a quick win. There are many ways NOT to label a screen in an exhibition:

NOT on the wall nearby.
NOT above or below the screen.
NOT running up the side of it.

Why? When the screen breaks (it will) it will look even more broken. 

Have you ever re-watched an old film you loved for its special effects, and realized that it didn't age well? The media industry raises the bar on production values every day. Museums can’t do that. How can museum media be valuable longer? Pre-age it.

You plan public-facing technology in most of your exhibitions. How cutting-edge should it be? It depends, but here are two things to remember. First: Nothing dulls faster than the cutting edge…

In the real world, we expect a sound to naturally emanate from its source. The happy toot of a baby elephant emanates from a baby elephant. Not the sky, the ground, or a nearby fern.

It should work the same in our exhibitions. Those happy toots should come from speakers as close as possible to the elephant's on-screen image.

Nothing dulls faster than the cutting edge.

Say it again with me.

Nothing dulls faster than the cutting edge.

There are three aging speeds to consider in every project: Building Speed, Furniture Speed, and Technology Speed. (Here come more animal metaphors.)