What if our exhibits were experiments? Ann Neumann (Director of Galleries and Exhibitions, MIT Museum) discusses “Museum as Lab” with host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners | The Exhibition and Experience Design Studio). …

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. (Guess what causes redeye in a photo. Take your time. Hint: it’s a little gross.) …

Some words confuse as much as they help. (Yeah, I’m looking at you, program. developer. and immersive.) Words for display objects aren’t much better. “Artifact” seems clear enough. But what about “repro,” “facsimille,” and “replica”? Sheesh. …

For exhibitions that will be busy, we don’t like interactives only meant for one visitor at a time. Why? Because single-visitor experiences can’t serve enough people to be efficient. So then we plan for large group interactivity. But wait …

It’s not an exhibition brainstorming meeting until someone yells out: How about a hologram? But ironically, nearly every “hologram” you will ever see in person, or in a movie, or in a Google search … isn’t one. …

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 no trend is invulnerable. …

Our projects are spatial experiences just long enough to offload their takeaways into the minds of our visitors. If they succeed, they live on in thousands, or millions, of souls. So what one thing do we want our visitors to leave thinking? …

When is the earliest time you should estimate costs for your exhibition or experience project? A. As soon as you have approved technical drawings. B. As soon as you have a concept design package. C. As soon as humanly possible. The answer is …

What if we're doing community engagement … wrong? Nu Goteh (Founder and Principal of ROOM FOR MAGIC) joins MtM host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners) to discuss “Community Engagement Misconceptions.” …

I have been looking in all the usual places for credible data to back up a gut feeling we probably all share: Reading is on the decline. Because if it is, it’s time to rethink text in exhibitions. Data-wise, I haven’t found a smoking gun. That’s where you come in. …

For any audio-visual program, we must also offer that audio content in visual form.  And we all know closed captioning. But “open captioning” is the exhibition standard. That’s CC that’s permanent, aka “burned in,” and can’t be turned off. …

For those who hear, but not well, legally we must assist them to hear our audio better. In exhibition theaters, one approach is “assistive listening” systems. This is required anywhere visitors gather to experience content over time. …

Imagine an exhibition many of your visitors will never understand, because the main takeaways are audio-visual — and they can’t hear. Hearing loss in young people is actually on the rise (thanks, earbuds). And a third of people over 65 can’t hear well. …

Oxford economist Bent Flyvbjerg is an expert on failure. Research for his book included “16,000 skyscrapers, airports, museums, concert halls, nuclear reactors, and hydroelectric dams across 136 countries.” That’s right — museums. …

One of the most common mistakes we make involves pupils. Not students. The other kind. We all love spaces with light walls. White, or off-white. Light walls brighten a room, reduce artificial lighting, feel safer, seem modern. Sure. But. …

What if we combined immersion, emotion, storytelling — and games? Ed Rodley (Co-Founder and Principal, The Experience Alchemists), joins MtM host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners) to discuss “Playful Engagement.” …

Q: Light text on a dark background? Designer gimmick! Museum labels with dark text on a light background are always better! Just look at books! And newspapers! A: Yes, dark text on light is the standard for print media. But museum labels aren’t books. …

Sometimes it seems like the world wants us to make vanilla exhibitions. But … you know what the funny thing is? As soon as we give in, and let things be unoriginal, overstuffed, long-winded, tech for tech’s sake, generic, whatever — guess what happens? …

Got a recent exhibition or experience project that might have a shot at winning an award? If you do — or if you just want to see some great design work — check out the Global Design Awards held by SEGD, the Society for Experiential Graphic Design. …

What’s the “contingency first” trick? It’s an easy way to help projects come in on budget. One of the first things we do in my company when we start a new project is ask: “Is there a contingency already set aside?” And if not …