How many different types of experiences should one interactive media element offer? Easy. One. A laptop can have hundreds of software applications in it. But exhibition interactives aren’t laptops. …

The most important takeaway of any interactive should get communicated even if visitors don’t interact. Quiz: what is the one thing every interactive element should do? (Hint: it’s the same as any other element.) Answer: communicate its main message. …

“Let’s go to the museum so we can use some touchscreens!” — Said No Visitor, Ever. Have you been in a newly-opened exhibition lately, filled with touchscreens worth millions, that nobody uses? I have. A big, famous one. We have reached Peak Touchscreen. …

Sometimes we’re stuck with projectors in bright spaces. Reader A.H. writes: "... we are just embarking on a battle to control the amount of light in an exhibition so the projection doesn’t look milky. Unfortunately, the space can’t be dark …" Here are some approaches …

Technology changes fast. Flat panels are bigger, LED is cheaper. Both work in sunlight. In classrooms and conferences, projectors are fading. But they are sometimes still necessary in (darker) exhibitions. When? In six “S” situations: …

If I had a dollar for every time I had to talk someone out of trying to use a projector in a bright exhibition space, I’d have … uh … lemme see … I guess maybe $64. Huh. Anyway, it happens a lot. Despite our peculiar optimism that it will work anyway. Here’s why it won’t.

It’s not an exhibition brainstorming meeting until someone yells out: Hey, what about a … hologram! Usually that’ll be a donor or a non-technical member of the development team, bless their souls. But nearly every “hologram” you will ever see isn’t one. …

What if there were a high-quality, peer-reviewed journal for the whole exhibition community? What if it featured the leading organizations, practitioners and ideas that shape the whole industry? What if back issues available for free to see online?

Long-term exhibitions almost always feature an element that got included because it was a hot trend. But is that element part of a long-term trend? Or a short-term one? Hard to know in advance. But dead trends aren’t limited to tech. And no trend is invulnerable. …

Lighting exhibitions of light-sensitive artifacts is hard. We do it wrong. Why it’s hard: For a valuable light-sensitive artifact to draw the eye and look important, it still has to appear as the brightest object, even though almost no light is allowed on it. …

Many tech trends in the museum world disappear as fast as they came. (Come back, spin browser!) But there is one I swore was going to die an early death years ago … and it never did. How did touch tables never die? Upon reflection, there might be good reasons …

What is this thing we call a traveling exhibition? Carol Bossert (Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service / Smithsonian Affiliations) joins host Jonathan Alger (C&G Partners) to reveal the “8 Principles of Traveling Exhibitions”.

MONIQUE: A huge tech revolution is coming to the museum world, you know. PHIL: Maybe. MONIQUE: What do you mean? PHIL: I’m not sure which tech revolution you’re talking about. But in my time, there have been hundreds of tech revolutions …

There are three aging speeds to consider in every exhibition and experience project: Building Speed, Furniture Speed, and Technology Speed. 1. Building Speed: Good buildings age like an elephant. You shouldn’t need to replace one for 50 years …

There are some weird coincidences in our field. Here’s one. Typical projectors (not short-throw) ideally get placed about as far from an image as 1.5 times the width of that image. Guess how far away from an image a person instinctively stands …

There is a counterintuitive audio engineering rule about how to make something louder. It might sound crazy. But it’s true. To dial something up — don’t dial it up. Dial everything else down. This rule is especially true in certain kinds of physical spaces …

Sexy browsing is when an interactive experience is the equivalent of a book, diagram or filing cabinet, but done with appealing technology. You navigate educational image, text or video information. And your reward is more information. It’s good. But it’s not the only option.

Is everything “phygital”? How can a “phygital mindset” lead to better experience design? Exhibition designer and “phygital architect” Alin Tocmacov joins host Jonathan Alger to hash out some key principles, in “8 Ways to Be Phygital”.

My research prep for an appearance on a podcast became ten insights that changed how I think. Here are the last five. — #6. Any new space is immersive. Any time we are “dipped” into new “fluid” we are immersed. New surroundings demand attention.

We all either love "immersive" — or are fed up with it. Or both. The inimitable Charlie Morrow invited me on his podcast, "Immerse!", which is about ... you know. I did some prep research. I found ten ideas that changed how I think about what I do.