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.

That black circle in your eye is not a dot. It’s a hole in your eyeball. Your pupils are black like a keyhole is black when the room beyond has no light. When you look into someone’s eyes, you are literally looking inside their eyes. (Guess what redeye is, in a photo.) …

For exhibitions that will be busy, we often avoid planning interactives meant for one visitor at a time. Single-visitor experiences can’t serve enough people to be efficient. And single-person interactivity is what we all do all day anyway. So we plan for the opposite …

This one has come up in conversation on projects so often lately that it’s time to put it out there again. Sometimes, a problem is an opportunity in disguise. Next time one comes up in a planning discussion, try the Evil Smile Excellent trick. …

Your voice was heard! Last week, many of you replied to a survey (now closed) about which topics should get covered more here. It was a “select all that apply” checklist. The Results: Turns out there was no universally chosen topic. That said, the leaders were clear. …

PHIL: This coffee is terrible. No wonder it was so cheap and fast. MONIQUE: Iron Triangle, baby. [Sips matcha] PHIL: Uh, what?MONIQUE: You know, that old saw: “Fast, cheap, or good — pick two.” That’s the Iron Triangle. Especially in exhibitions. PHIL: And coffee? …

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” — Albert Einstein. This rule comes up regularly in exhibition planning discussions. For good reason. It’s applicable to every project we do. But wait, there’s more. …

Well, this should be interesting. If you’re planning to attend the upcoming SEGD conference in a couple of weeks, please come watch a LIVE recording of Making the Museum, the podcast. Here’s the official blurb about it: …

Help me help you. We cover a lot here. Anything that might help our projects open on time, on budget, to rave reviews. But which topics are the most important to you? This One-Question Survey will take you maybe 15 seconds — 15 seconds! — and it’s right here. …

What if the best way to market an exhibition — wasn't marketing? How can we help visitors find us? When they do, how do we engage them? Visitor experience expert Samir Bitar (The Art of Consulting) joins host Jonathan Alger to discuss The Visitor Engagement Lifecycle. …

This comes up regularly. Your organization has a visual brand, and you’re not sure if those logos, colors, and typefaces should be applied to your exhibition space. Here are your options. (Unsure? Pick #1.) Option 1: No. The option most people should pick. …

Our job, at the end of the day, is to put new ideas into the heads of our visitors. Seems clear. But getting new ideas in there takes energy. And, like in the movie Inception, sometimes it doesn’t work. What if we could use the ideas already inside those heads? …

I don’t know why it happens. It’s a mystery. I have asked colleagues. I have asked psychologists. Nobody knows. In every project, no matter how big, whether an exhibition, experience or something else, one thing is for sure: One part will resist having a design chosen ….

A curator pulls a key from her cardigan to unlock a dark, quiet storage room. She walks to drawer F138, opens it, and sees … a fork. Or does she? Experts like curators have, well, expertise. So they can think at a higher level, in abstractions and systems. They’ve done the reading. …

There is a song we sometimes sing in our exhibition and experience projects: We’re poor. Our projects are underfunded. We don’t have the money those “other” industries have. We’re always the ones that have to do a lot with a little. A common refrain. But is it true? …

Three podcast hosts join forces in a single show to discuss the latest in experience design. It’s a fast-paced three-way session covering half a dozen broad themes, and countless smaller ones. What are we hearing out there? Is the biggest trend of them all … empathy? 

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’s value engineering (“VE”)? You might learn it as a euphemism for cost cutting. Like “sanitation engineer” makes “garbage collector” less negative. Regardless, “negative” is a word that many might use to describe VE anyway. Why? …

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?

Test your new exhibition or experience idea fast — by filling in the blanks in the short script below. Imagine visitor services staff at the front desk saying exactly this to visitors. You’d be surprised how fast the results are obvious. Here’s the script: …