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SOMEWHERE I remember reading about a solution to corporate executives
being impatient at elevators. Apparently the solution was to
install floor length mirrors next to the elevators, so that the execs
would become preoccupied...
Beryl
>ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
>Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
>*****************************************************************************
>
>In James Gleick's "Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything", he
>theorized that the modern device which most test our patience is... the
>elevator. (So, how often do YOU hit an already lit call button, knowing full
>well that this does absolutely nothing?)
>
>Anyhow... Personally, I'd be reluctant to set any hard + fast rules for how
>long a time limit you'd want to recommend for a given exhibit apparatus. I
>can think of plenty of them where visitors can and hopefully will explore +
>test it out for much longer than 90 seconds. (That's a good thing, right?)
>
>Perhaps the solution is in the overall layout of the center. If you know
>that component X is very popular, scatter a lot of other things nearby so
>that rather than standing around waiting, visitors can try something else
>and come back to X. In very heavy visitation periods, you can call on your
>floor staff to bring some extra experiments to the area to keep people
>occupied.
>
>In theory,
>Jonah Cohen
>Outreach & Public Programs Manager
>Science Center of Connecticut
>
>"On blind faith they place reliance,
>what we need more of is science"
> -MC Hawking
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Peter A. Anderson [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>Sent: Wednesday, July 27, 2005 6:08 PM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Popular exhibits
>
>ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
>Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
>institutions.
>****************************************************************************
>*
>
>Dave, I've long had a "by guess and by golly" rule that we should try to
>have
>every experience come available to a new person every 90 seconds. So, a
>three minute experience should be twinned, etc.
>
>I arrived at that by timing how long people would wait before they showed
>signs of impatience, or moved on to another exhibit. It was rather
>unscientific;
>I did not have a statistical sample.
>
>Like you, I'd be interested to hear what others think of this matter, and
>if there
>are good measurements.
>
>Marty, for multimedia exhibits, there are several examples of a request,
>after
>x minutes or a complete cycle, to let someone else use the exhibit.
>
>Regards, Peter Anderson
>
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--
Beryl Rosenthal, Ph.D.
Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs
MIT Museum
265 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02139
Tel: 617-452-2111
Fax: 617-253-8994
[log in to unmask]
"A great place to explore ideas, invention, and innovation:
http://web.mit.edu/museum"
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