The other half of any museum exhibit is the explanatory information that accompanies an artifact. Linda walked us through the design process for one particular panel for the new Triceratops display.
This particular sign deals with the use of cladograms as a way of relating species and where Triceratops is related to the Marginocephalia dinosaurs. The philosophy of dealing with difficult or abstract topic in the museum is to present something the visitor understands, and then relate that to the more difficult concept. To do this, the Exhibits staff first had to determine what the visitors were interested in, and what they already were familiar with.
Initially, a cart with specimens and two volunteers were placed in front of the existing Triceratops exhibit. They listened to visitors about their interests, and took notes. From this data, a second longer phase began. It was determined that a cladogram was needed, but these were known to be difficult for visitors to understand. Temporary large printouts of possible display signs were mounted in the exhibit area- starting with ones containing only words, and progressing through several designs with and without pictures. A volunteer who was doing master thesis work at a local university came in to interview visitors and compile comments on what was understood and what they liked about the display, a tape recorder was used to gather comments.
The basic layout evolved to included additional explanatory text, a 1-2-3 approach to reading a simple and sample cladogram of familiar animals. The familiar animal cladogram featured a trunk of "mammals", with familiar species as the branches. This was compared to a cladogram featuring species of Marginocephalia dinosaurs. Once this concept was determined three or four iterations were tested. Each time new information would come from visitors that altered the designs. "Put pictures of the animals on the diagram", "which one is Triceratops" (they had not labeled them!), etc. Finally the shape and positioning of the panel needed to be determined. Initially it was planned as a large item high on the wall behind the exhibit, but with the detail and text involved they decided to try and make it a rail panel right at the end of the exhibit.
The finished sign on display
