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Hello, Scott,

Here's a published reference about the formative testing of a series of 
timelines about geologic time:

Marino, M., Harvey, M., Loomis, R., & Sundine, A. (1994). Investigations in 
time and
(available) space: The search for an effective time graphic -- Formative 
evaluation of a
series of graphics designs. Current Trends in Audience Research and 
Evaluation, 8, 9-13.

Here's a summary of that article:

Looking for the best timeline to use in an exhibit, the Denver Museum of 
Natural History completed a series of formative studies to test alternative 
versions of a timeline for their Prehistoric Journey exhibition (Marino et al., 
1994). When they tested a “Time Spiral” based on a U. S. Geological Survey 
publication, Marino et al. found that (a) the circular nature of the spiral confused 
visitors, (b) visitors had difficulty applying information from the spiral to 
answer questions, (c) the lack of illustrations along some parts of the 
spiral implied to visitors that nothing was known about those time intervals, and 
(d) the names for the time periods were useful only to visitors with previous 
knowledge. Seeking an alternative approach, Marino et al. used a card sort 
activity to test visitor preferences for four more linear time scales to be placed 
on exhibit labels. Visitors preferred the simplest and most linear 
approaches. After several more stages of testing, about 80% of respondents were able to 
extract correct information from the final timeline (Marino et al., 1994).

I've got a bunch more published and unpublished references about people's 
thinking about geological and historical time online at this address:
http://www.museumdeveloper.net/understanding/underprehisttime.htm 

A year or so ago, Selinda ResearchAssociates did a formative evaluation study 
of a prototype timeline at the edge of the Grand Canyon.  It was a very 
complex study, specific to that prototype and that site.  However, it points to 
some of the issues that you have to keep in mind when dealing with visitors and 
geologic time.  A pdf of that study is here:
http://selindaresearch.com/TrailOfTimeFormativeFINAL.pdf 

Good luck!

Eric D. Gyllenhaal
Selinda Research Associates, Inc.


In a message dated 4/13/2006 11:01:46 PM Central Daylight Time, 
[log in to unmask] writes:

> Date:   Thu, 13 Apr 2006 10:35:10 -0400
> From:   Scott A Perich <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Timelines
> 
> I am getting conflicting information regarding Timelines in exhibits.
> 
> Do visitors like timelines?
> 
> Do visitors connect/understand/read timelines?
> 
> What makes a successful timeline?
> 
> Are there papers, evaluations, etc., that you would recommend reading?
> 
> 
> Thank you,
> Scott
> 
> ***********************************************************************
> 


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