Experienceology

Visit my new site!

2011-11-16T18:40:00.000-08:00

Please visit Experienceology for blog posts from now on.

The blog archive will remain here for your reference.

Bathroom Blogfest 2011

2011-10-24T20:58:00.000-07:00

Yes readers, it's that time again. Time to celebrate the wonderful world of bathrooms and how they relate to great customer and visitor experiences.

Below you'll find the list of bloggers who are writing about a variety of bathroom experiences, and how they are integrated into great brands.

Please do check out all of their blogs this week to read and learn more. And special thanks to C.B. Whittemore for keeping the tradition alive, and Susan Abbott for designing this year's logo, again!

I have photos, lots of photos.

THE perfect solution for glossy museum buildings with poor wayfinding: gobos!

A high shelf for extra paper...

Name	Blog Name	Blog URL
Susan Abbott	Customer Experience Crossroads	http://www.cust omercrossroads.com/customercrossroads/
Paul Anater	Kitchen and Residential Design	http://www.kitchenandresi dentialdesign.com
Shannon Bilby	From the Floors Up	http://fromthefloorsup.com/
Toby Bloomberg	Diva Marketing	http://bloom bergmarketing.blogs.com/bloomberg_marketing/
Laurence Borel	Blog Till You Drop	http://www.laurenceborel.com/
Bill Buyok	Avente Tile Talk	http://tiletalk.blogspot.com
Jeanne Byington	The Importance of Earnest Service	http://blog.jmbyington.com/
Becky Carroll	Customers Rock!	http://customersrock.net
Katie Clark	Practical Katie	http://practicalkatie.blogspot.co m/
Nora DePalma	O'Reilly DePalma: The Blog	http://www.oreilly-depalma.com/b log/
Paul Friederichsen	The BrandBiz Blog	http://brandbizblog.com/
Tish Grier	The Constant Observer	http://spap-oop.blogspot.com/
Elizabeth Hise	Flooring The Consumer	http://flooringtheconsumer.b logspot.com
Emily Hooper	Floor Covering News Blog	http://www.fcnews.net/category/b log/
Diane Kazan	Urban Design Renovation	http://blog.urbandesignrenovat ion.com
Joseph Michelli	Dr. Joseph Michelli's Blog	http://www.josephmichelli.com/blog
Veronika Miller	Modenus Blog	http://www.modenus.com/blog
Arpi Nalbandian	Tile Magazine Editors' Blog	http://www.tile magonline.com/Articles/Blog_Nalbandian
David Polinchock	Polinchock's Ponderings	http://blog.polinchock.com/
Professor Toilet	American Standard's Professor Toilet	http://www.professortoilet.com
David Reich	my 2 cents	http://reichcomm.typepad.com
Victoria Redshaw & Shelley Pond	Scarlet Opus Trends Blog	http://www.trendsblog.co.uk
Sandy Renshaw	Purple Wren	http://www.PurpleWren.com
Bethany Richmond	Carpet and Rug Institute Blog	http://www.carpet-and-r ug-institute-blog.com/
Bruce D. Sanders	RIMtailing	http://www.rimtailing.blogspot.co m
Paige Smith	Neuse Tile Service blog	http://neusetile.wordpress.com/
Stephanie Weaver	Experienceology	http://experienceology.blogspot. com/
Christine B. Whittemore	Content Talks Business Blog	http://sim plemarketingnow.com/content-talks-business-blog/
Christine B. Whittemore	Smoke Rise & Kinnelon Blog	http://smokerise-nj.blogspot.com/
Christine B. Whittemore	Simple Marketing Blog	http://www.simplemarketingblog.co m/
Ted Whittemore	Working Computers	http://www.kinneloncomputers.com/
Chris Woelfel	Artcraft Granite, Marble & Tile Co.	http://www.artcraftgmt.com
Patty Woodland	Broken Teepee	http://www.brokenteepee.com/
Denise Lee Yohn	brand as business bites	http://deniseleeyohn.com/best-bit es

Steve Jobs: Failure to conform

2011-10-06T00:35:00.000-07:00

30 years ago, I was cutting and splicing 16 mm film by hand wearing white gloves. The process was called "conforming." You had to cut the original negative, and if you got a fingerprint on it, it's ruined.

You have a print made of the original, called the work print, and you edit the film, cutting each section, taping it together, running it by hand through a reel-to-reel setup. Once you're happy with your work print, you conform the original film to it. It's an expensive and enormously time-consuming process. At that time, making a film cost, at a minimum, $10,000 a minute.

The whole class would be laboring on their films, disappearing into tiny, hot, dark rooms to work. We'd come out for air, light, coffee, and ask each other, "Are you finished? Have you conformed?"

I didn't end up working in the film industry. But I made this film in iMovie on my MacBook Pro. In about 30 minutes.

I talk to a loved one almost every night through iChat.

I shot this time-lapse sunset on a beach in Hawai'i on my iPad.

I edited this podcast in Garageband. It's available on iTunes.

The iPhone I carry in my back pocket is more powerful than all the computers I used from 1984 through 2010. Together. (Okay, I made that up. But it's probably true.)

Thank you Steve Jobs, for not conforming.

The Verizon iPhone customer experience

2011-09-07T00:01:00.000-07:00

I waited until the iPhone was available from Verizon, and was impressed with the step-by-step instructions I got all along the way, from a "here's what to expect" guide, to shipping updates, to follow-up afterwards.

I would love to see museums adding this level of welcome to membership programs.

Storie Shop in Paris: The ideal retail experience

2011-08-31T00:01:00.000-07:00

Yes, that's a strong statement. And of course, it wouldn't be everyone's ideal retail experience. But let me tell you why I loved this shop so much (and spent so much money in it).

Lovely signage and appealing merchandise, things I had never seen anywhere else, led me in. It turned out that the shop had just opened that weekend, and the owner was still setting up, waiting for merchandise, and figuring things out. We didn't care, returning three times before we found them open.

She has an innate knack for display, using found objects in a truly creative way.

I loved how the objects were juxtaposed in seemingly random ways. For me, it worked.

I loved the little stories she wrote on each tag.

If you're in Paris, you don't want to miss this store! It's near Blvd. Montparnasse in the 6th, about 2 blocks from the Vavin station (Métro line #4), 20 Rue Delambre.

Sunday's Signpost

2011-08-28T00:01:00.000-07:00

Just in case you thought those museum stickers were purely an American problem. This is exiting the Rodin Museum (Museé Rodin) in Paris.

Customer communication at Heathrow International Airport

2011-08-24T00:01:00.000-07:00

A big thumbs-up to Heathrow, which has clearly thought through their entire customer experience and worked hard to make your time there pleasant. In fact, I was actually sorry we didn't have a longer layover, as the shopping and dining options were pretty fabulous. I especially wanted to try Gordon Ramsay's Plane Food restaurant. Maybe next time.

There is messaging throughout the transit through Heathrow, and even before you get there. When we got our boarding passes in Paris, the envelope contained clear instructions how to navigate through Heathrow. I was also impressed by these signs, showing the latest customer survey results.

I would love to see museums showing their visitor satisfaction survey results in such a transparent way.

Sunday's Signpost

2011-08-21T00:01:00.000-07:00

They really do value their mimes in France!

I wasn't able to get a picture of this sign, which totally cracked me up. This is what the wifi instructions at Charles de Gaulle Airport said:

Obtenez vos codes d'acces
Connectez-vous
Surfez

I'm going to Hawai'i and you should too

2011-08-15T16:09:00.000-07:00

There is truly a once-in-a-lifetime museum conference coming up September 23-26, 2011, and I hope you have already bought your ticket and made your hotel reservations. Yes, I'm on the program committee and therefore a bit biased about the great sessions, like one on "Creating the Best Experience: Museums & Guest Service" that I might be a part of. Or not. You'll have to come and find out. They've run the numbers and it's no more expensive overall than any other conference you might attend. How can you miss it?

Still on the fence? Did you know that the Pacific Islands Museums Association will also be there? And the Hawai'i Museums Association? And the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums? Think of all the super-cool people you will meet, have conversations with, and who might invite you to visit their museum in Fiji! What other conference will kick off with a welcome and blessing from all the native peoples attending? And where else...

Does the view from every hotel room look like this? (And this is the "bad" side.)

Can you attend sessions in THE most beeootiful convention center I have ever seen?

THIS is a convention center? Be still my heart!

Can you attend an evening event in a stunning mid-century modern masterpiece like Liljestrand House?

Or have dinner in a traditional Japanese tea house?

What other conference can guarantee that you will get lei'd at least once?

Hope to see you in Honolulu on September 23rd!

Sunday's Signpost

2011-08-14T00:01:00.000-07:00

I stay at this hotel about once a month. This time I finally turned the sheet over and left a suggestion. It's nice way to show that you want feedback from guests.

Conner Prairie: Interview with Jim Willaert

2011-08-10T00:01:00.000-07:00

Learn how Conner Prairie moved from typical interpretation, featuring a "monologue" to a visitor-center approach. This can apply to any kind of museum, park, zoo, historic house, or garden. For more videos from Conner Prairie, visit my YouTube page. My thanks to Conner Prairie for hosting me.

Sunday's Signpost

2011-08-07T00:01:00.000-07:00

I noticed that each door had a different, friendly greeting. Does your museum?

Conner Prairie: Interview with Iris O'Donnell

2011-08-03T00:01:00.000-07:00

Hear first-hand from a 12-year-old first-person interpreter at Conner Prairie Interactive History Park. For more videos from Conner Prairie, visit my YouTube page.

Locals vs. tourists: workshop in Hawai'i on September 23, 2011

2011-08-02T13:37:00.000-07:00

Entry monument, Pearl Harbor Visitor Center

For museums in the Pacific Rim, it’s often challenging to create programs and services that meet the needs of both locals and tourists. This engaging half-day workshop will give you a framework upon which to build vital programs that attract the local audience, while helping you streamline your visitor service offerings for the important tourist market.

Mary Kay Cunningham of Dialogue Consulting and Wendy Meluch of Visitor Studies Services, along with yours truly will give you practical tools you can use back home. Breakout sessions will utilize the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center to help you apply what you've learned to your site. Professionals from 'Iolani Palace and Mission Houses Museum have been using one of the tools and will report on their experience this past summer and how it is impacting their planning.

Flag, Arizona Memorial

Shuttle buses will be available in the morning; come early and spend time at Pearl Harbor before the workshop.

Date: Friday, September 23, 2011 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM (HST)

Location: Pearl Harbor Visitor Center

Price: $25.00

Sunday's Signpost

2011-07-31T00:01:00.000-07:00

That's how to get the right people to apply.

Pediatric cancer hits close to home

2011-07-30T16:23:00.000-07:00

This week we learned that my youngest nephew Cody, 3, has cancer. We would love your thoughts and prayers for his healing. While this brings up so many feelings for me, I'm going to focus on what I can do, which is to use my blog to help support pediatric cancer research.

Our neighbors Amy and Keith Miller host an annual fundraiser each year, which happened to be today. Amy got involved after hearing about Alex's Lemonade Stand, started hosting it a few years ago, got a radio station involved, and additional partners have followed. It's a nice opportunity to come out, have some lemonade, see the neighbors, and bid on auction items.

You can help by donating to Amy and Keith's fundraising page. Alex Scott also had neuroblastoma, like Cody, and her legacy is a nonprofit that has raised over $40 million for pediatric cancer research to date.

Amy Miller with Stephan Thomas

It's not just little guys who are affected. This is Stephan Thomas, 16, who is currently challenged by rhabdomyosarcoma. Amy taught Stephan as a 5th grader, and the fundraiser today is in his honor. Stephan had 30 weeks of treatment, was cancer-free for a while, and now is getting relapse therapy.

Host Keith Miller

There are many great charities out there, but perhaps today this one will feel appropriate for your gift.

When I was meditating about Cody on Thursday night, a thought popped into my head, "They must be sick with worry." Followed immediately by, "Wow, that's not a good thought, how can I flip that into something more positive?" So I decided that instead of "sick with worry" I want to feel "flooded with hope."

May we all feel flooded with hope today.

Conner Prairie: Interview with Aili McGill

2011-07-27T00:01:00.000-07:00

Here how Conner Prairie moved from classic "monologue" interpretation to a visitor-centered approach. For more Conner Prairie videos, visit my YouTube page.

Sunday's Signpost

2011-07-24T00:01:00.000-07:00

I love the creativity this shows. Someone at this street fair stall took the time to write down customer comments, type them up, print them out, and use them as advertising. Is there a way your museum could do this? There is something about the raw nature of these signs that makes them very appealing. While you might want them to look a little nicer, I could see how posting Facebook or Yelp comments on a board near your museum entry could have this same effect.

Conner Prairie: visitor-centered interpretation

2011-07-06T17:26:00.000-07:00

Last fall I had the chance to visit Conner Prairie Interactive History Park in Fishers, IN. I did a series of videos. The first one, showing a beautiful interaction between two interpreters (one of them 12!) and a family is here.

In this video you'll see a variety of interpreters at work. Some are in period attire doing first-person interpretation. Some are in uniforms doing third person interpretation. I'd be curious to know which you think are more effective, and why. Please comment!

Sunday's Signpost

2011-05-15T06:11:00.000-07:00

Not only is this super-clear for people speaking any language, but it shows that they actually thought about a problem and came up with a way to solve it.

Sunday's Signpost

2011-05-08T06:32:00.000-07:00

Yes, I should have posted this in October. But I still think it's a funny, fresh take on a "rules" sign. If they had only added eyes on the pumpkin, it would have been perfect.
Sent in by reader Bob B. from the Sherman Oaks Galleria mall.

Sunday's Signpost

2011-05-01T06:05:00.000-07:00

There were a whole series of these signs advertising a business called The Go-To Guys. Older readers would know these as "Burma Shave" signs. I wasn't able to stop and take a proper picture, but I thought this was a really effective way to capture people's attention on a busy thoroughfare. If your museum is along a busy street, could you add messages like this (via banners or signs) to help people see you?

Seb Chan interview: Designing participatory experiences

2011-04-27T01:45:00.000-07:00

Here is the last part of my interview with Seb Chan, Head of Digital, New, and Emerging Technologies at Sydney's Powerhouse Museum. Here, Seb talks about walking through the visitor journey to make sure your experience as a whole works from the visitor's perspective, and then gives some surprising tips about where to include participatory activities. Want more Seb? He talks about building your museum's brand around your collection, and what makes museums unique (and therefore relevant).

Interactive elements at the Bishop Museum, Honolulu

2011-04-25T06:22:00.000-07:00

In January I had the opportunity to visit the gorgeous Bishop Museum, where I gave a visitor experience workshop for the Hawai'i Museums Association.

I had a few minutes to walk through the re-installed Hawai'ian Hall, which is a stunning three-story space with the original woodwork. It's a challenging space for exhibits, as there is not much flexibility in how things can be configured. Due to low light, I wasn't able to take many photos. But here are two highlights.

This multi-panel mural by a local Native Hawai'ian artist depicts the origin myths about the Hawai'ian islands.

They included some nice low-tech interactives for kids on the second level, including this one bringing scent into the storyline.

I look forward to returning to Honolulu and the Bishop in September for the Western Museums Association's annual conference, in conjunction with the Hawai'i Museums, Association, the Pacific Islands Museum Association, and the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums. Hope to see you there! Register by the end of April for only $225!

Sunday's Signpost

2011-04-24T06:03:00.000-07:00

Great way to acknowledge visitor's feelings while explaining your choices.

Seb Chan interview: What makes a museum a museum?

2011-04-20T01:05:00.000-07:00

My Seb Chan interview continues. Seb is the Head of Digital, New, and Emerging Technologies at Sydney's Powerhouse Museum. He discusses the trend towards museums becoming more relevant by being more engaged with their communities, but why they can't be like libraries. We need to embrace what makes us uniquely "museum." The collection is the defining difference. He talks about how museums need to build their brands around their collection here.

Seb Chan interview: Build your museum's brand around your collection

2011-04-13T09:54:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to sit down with Seb Chan, Head of Digital, New, and Emerging Technologies at Sydney's Powerhouse Museum. Here's what he had to say about making museums relevant by focusing the museum's brand identity on your unique collection. What do you think? More from this interview next week.

Job trends in visitor experience

2011-03-29T11:26:00.000-07:00

A few years back, as I was writing my book, I started introducing myself as a "visitor experience consultant." As far as I know, I may have been the only person with that title. So it's very exciting to see visitor experience tracks at museum conferences, and visitor experience jobs being posted in the U.S. and abroad. I was also excited to see that Beth Plemmons, formerly of Mount Vernon, has been hired as the "CEO for Visitor Services" of the Capital Visitor Center in Washington, DC. I'm loving this trend!

What museums can learn from Super Bowl ads

2011-03-09T12:18:00.000-08:00

1. A brilliant ad and tagline can re-define you.

When I first saw this ad, I actually got choked up. Imported... from Detroit. What a great way to acknowledge history and move forward. And, this has 9 million views on YouTube as of today. 9 million views for a CAR COMMERCIAL.

2. Don't bet the bank on one ad campaign.

This ad campaign was a gamble for Groupon. They'd never advertised before, and decided to ante up millions for this ad. Not only was there intense negative reaction when it ran, but it may have hurt them long-term, as many consumers said they were going to unsubscribe as a result of this ad, which they pulled several days later.

3. Have real people look at your ad and give their honest reactions. And, listen to them.

I find it hard to believe that Groupon or their agency had any "real" people view the ad, based on how people on Twitter reacted to it as it aired. It immediately spawned spoof after spoof of negative tweets.

4. Learn how to track public sentiment through Twitter by following the Brand Bowl live next year. It's absolutely fascinating to have a collective experience with other people and watch how people are reacting to advertising. A must for museum marketers, even if you could care less about football.

Sunday's signpost: Social media high school

2011-02-20T07:48:00.000-08:00

Is your museum this up front about social media?

Sunday's signpost: Dogs you may bring in your owners

2011-02-13T07:46:00.000-08:00

Sunday's signpost: Ask Me station

2011-02-06T07:42:00.000-08:00

Saw this at a local church one Sunday morning... why aren't museums doing this out in front? Note the water bowl for dogs.

A mission-based green cafe at the Autry Museum

2011-02-02T07:15:00.000-08:00

A key visitor experience element at your museum is your cafe. And one thing visitors notice at museums is whether or not you have made an environmental commitment, and are truly operating as a green business. I saw an excellent example of this at the Autry National Center in Los Angeles.

This sign lets you know about their commitment to recycling and composting.

Flatware is 100% compostable. I also liked the metal buckets, which themed in nicely with their Western heritage theme.

All the waste from those tiny packets of condiments... gone! Nice job.

I loved this, as it helped people understand what really can be composted.

Pardon our dust signs at LAX

2011-01-30T19:33:00.000-08:00

Saw this very clever set of "pardon our dust" signs during my last trip through Los Angeles International Airport, aka LAX.

Loved the plays on LA and LA LA Land.

Lots of wordplay, like Re:LAX. It's all good.

New year, a new direction for Experienceology

2011-01-03T12:17:00.000-08:00

Hello dear readers, and welcome to 2011. You may have noticed that this blog has been a bit quiet in 2010. While that sometimes meant I was busy working on client projects, it also meant that I was re-thinking my purpose as a museum consultant and where I want to go in the next few years.

This thought process required me to take some time off, both mentally and literally, to allow my brain to recharge and percolate. A lot of ideas have been swimming around, and with the constant need to feed the blog, the podcast, the tweets, the conference proposals, the webinars, the Facebook page... it just wasn't happening.

So I gave myself the summer off from all that, focused on existing client work, started a food blog for fun, and stopped pushing. And then one day I woke up and said, "I need a really big piece of fome core." I bought the largest one that would fit inside Dexter the Prius. I got it home, and up went the Post-it notes with all the things, people, and ideas that had been swimming around in my head.

Right now, I'm calling it "my transformation work."

One thing has become crystal clear to me over the last year—working with clients, seeing people using my book, or having me come in to provide training—it is very difficult to change internal cultures. Whether your museum wants to improve your visitor experience, increase visitor comfort, become more participatory, be more community-engaged, rebrand to reflect any one of these notions, or connect to visitors through social media... all of these goals require a shift in organizational culture. And that takes time, a clear vision, and some kind of process. It's the process part that interests me.

I truly want to see museums succeed in this new decade, and defining a process for organizational transformation is something I plan to work on. Eventually, it might be my next book or e-book. It will probably be a wiki, where I hope to get your input and ideas. It may be community micro-funded.

You'll see changes here on the blog, and a new website, which we've been thinking about for a while. It might mean a different kind of webinar, more of a shared conversation about transformation as I gather information from great brains.

For now, it's a very large piece of fome core... and this blog post on the first work day of the new year.

I'd love to hear from you about this... feel free to comment here, on my Facebook page, or send me a message through my email, FB, Twitter, or LinkedIn. And if you have transformation stories you'd like to share about your museum, please do!

An integrated exit experience: Santa Barbara Museum of Art

2010-12-14T14:23:00.000-08:00

A question I'm frequently asked: "Can you give us an example of a well-designed exit experience?" Until this year, my answer was no. I hadn't seen one I felt really thought through the visitor's path, and took advantage of the right-hand bias as they exited. But I have now seen Conner Prairie, and their beautifully designed visitor center hits all the right notes. In this post I'm featuring a thoughtful store/cafe/family resource center at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, which does a fantastic job of connecting the museum to the street shopping-scape. While not exactly an exit experience (I think you can choose to enter and exit the museum without going through this space), it's the best example I've seen making this cluster of visitor services really accessible to the public, and hopefully encouraging people to come into the museum itself. The pictures tell the story best.


This entrance is to the right of the museum steps, fully integrated into the streetscape. Some merchandise racks outside would help pull visitors inside

A bright, airy store with interesting looking merchandise draws you in.

Speed bumps like this merchandise stand slow you down and get you engaged in shopping.

Pretty, colorful merchandise displays pull you into all corners of the shop.

You can see the cafe and the Family Resource Center through the back wall, connecting these spaces.

Exiting the shop, the cafe is the next thing you see. The open plan is very welcoming and the food looks great.

Being in California, wine plays a prominent role in the cafe menu. The food was delicious and the servers super-friendly.

Steps past the cafe on the left is the Family Resource Center. A bright graphic panel shows kids having fun.

I loved the approachable language. I wish that all art museums would adopt this tone throughout their galleries.

A mother and daughter fully engaged in an activity on a Sunday afternoon.

Sunday's signpost

2010-11-28T02:11:00.000-08:00

This "event" sign perfectly reflects the earthy/groovy vibe that is Lululemon Athletica. Spotted this sign by the register at their Palo Alto, CA store.

Sunday's signpost

2010-11-21T02:03:00.000-08:00

The clothespin wall

Okay, so this is not really a sign. But it was a cool indicator of a business' story. I visited Second Story Interactive Studios in Portland, Oregon in October. One of their first award-winning interactive pieces was Pinch, a portfolio demo built around a clothespin. Since then, people have given them antique clothespins and clothespin-related ephemera, which they display near the entrance to their groovy space.

What I learned from TEDxSanDiego

2010-11-15T15:19:00.000-08:00

FYI, when your day includes:

freshening your lipstick next to an Olympic Gold medalist
watching a former White House advisor rearrange items in her Kate Spade purse
lunching with a venture capitalist
connecting a cell phone R & D engineer with a wildlife biologist who could use his technology in the field
and talking to someone about your food blog while figuring out that the reason he looks familiar is because you saw him on The Colbert Report...

You must be at a TEDx conference.

It's much easier to write about the logistics of this terrific day, as I did here, than to articulate what the day meant to me personally or professionally. With 22 speakers and several performances, TEDx by nature is overwhelming, somewhat random, and very energizing. I expect that no two people in the room would write the same blog post about what they took away or how they are going to use it. Here are my take-aways:

Christine Comaford. Photo by Travis Houston. Used with permission.

Passion

I think what makes TED so zing-y is that every speaker is talking about their own personal passion, which they have lived out in a way that has impacted the world. Christine Comaford described it as "finding your question." She encouraged us to search for the ma, the pause in between our thoughts. Think of it as the rolling tickertape across the bottom of the news program. In between each thought there is a small space; focus on that space. Eventually that space will start to expand. She even asked us to take a moment and be still. She had a magnetic presence that truly mesmerized the room. Passion was also reflected in their charge to ask people during the breaks, "What do you love to do?" instead of asking, "What do you do?"

Jake Shimabukuru. Photo by Travis Houston. Used with permission.

Re-thinking the familiar

The astounding Jake Shimabukuru didn't just play the ukulele, a humble four-string traditional instrument. He rocked it. Flamenco-ed it. Seduced it. Dr. Larry Burns is completely re-thinking what the automobile can and should be in the 21st century, especially for high-density cities and countries. I love the idea of living in a city with a smart grid of EN-V mini-cars that drive themselves, link up in tandem for longer drives, and recharge in your closet. Jake Wood of Team Rubicon wants to re-purpose 1.8 million U.S. veterans to serve as disaster-relief workers, helping them heal from PTSD in the process.

Connectivity

I mean this in the broadest possible sense. Speakers talked about using super-smart social networks and hardware to connect us to health care, our cars, inexpensive pollution monitors... all with the goal of making the world a better place, saving us time, and working on our behalf. We saw a range of inspiring, hopeful, and useful things in our near-future.

Bill Toone of ECOLife Foundation talked about a different type of connectivity, that of humans, animals, and habitat. His inspiring story about saving millions of monarch butterflies with a cheap efficient wood-burning stove that also helps prevent lung disease inspired everyone in the room to think differently about conservation.

Bill Toone & Sunni Black. Photo by Travis Houston. Used with permission.

James Fowler conducted a connectivity experiment on us, having us note who we met during the day and tracking our connections via Twitter. His work is especially important, as it shows us the impact we have on the people in our lives, their friends, and even their friends' friends. I'm looking forward to reading his book Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives.

James Fowler's experiment. Photo by Travis Houston. Used with permission.

Advocacy

Finally, some speakers called us to action, like Tom Yellin of 10X10 who is working to "Educate girls. Change the world." Or Jason Russell of Invisible Children, who smacked us in the face at the beginning of his talk: "Want to get away with murder? Go to Africa." Simon Sinek suggests we Start with Why to determine our personal or professional mission, then go from there. And that brings us full circle... to finding our personal question.

For me, TEDxSanDiego was energizing, as I met people I would never have met otherwise. It engaged all facets of my personality and interests. I gave away as many food blogger cards as I did museum consultant cards. It challenged me to think about how I might be more involved in making my world a better place, and how to utilize the connections I made to do just that. Stay tuned.

Sunday's signpost

2010-11-14T02:02:00.000-08:00

Spotted in the Whole Foods parking lot in Hillcrest, San Diego.

What conferences can learn from TEDxSan Diego

2010-11-11T15:32:00.000-08:00

I was privileged to be one of about 300 people in the room at the first TEDxSanDiego. TEDx are independently organized events following the TED conference format. If you aren't familiar with TED talks, they are amazing, short, focused talks by the world's best speakers and thinkers, which are broadcast live (and recorded). (TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, although the content is now much broader.) I'll cover content in the next post, as I am still digesting the amazing day of more than 20 speakers. Today I wanted to talk about TEDxSanDiego from the perspective of event management.

Many people think that conferences are a dying format, and will soon go away entirely. After attending TEDx, what I now think is that they've set a standard for the 21st-century conference. While more than 27,000 people watched the event live, and potentially millions more will see the talks once they are posted online, there was something amazing and energizing about attending live. So, here are seven things your professional conference should learn from TEDx.

1) People have to apply. They had a limited number of seats, but also they want this to be an event with intention. Having an application process creates not only a feeling of anticipation, but focuses the participants' intent on what will happen after the conference. You had to fill out an online application, which included explaining how you would spread the word about TEDx and what you learned afterwards. I heard that they received hundreds of applications. I know that I felt honored (and special) to be accepted. Before we left, we were asked to fill out commitment cards and turn them in.

Yes, I filled mine out. I pulled an extra to bring home.

2. The event started before the event. The pre-event emails were a masterful blend of welcoming language and logistical assistance. When I requested a special meal, I quickly received a warm, helpful response instructing me to let an usher know where I was sitting. Language included items like, "TEDxSanDiego concierge," "Event will start promptly with a spectacular opening," and "If you are not able to join us for the conference, please respond to this message so that we can offer your spot to another amazing person."

3. The service was stellar. The all-volunteer event was staffed largely from folks at Sharp Healthcare in San Diego, a company which is known for redefining the patient experience. A phalanx of friendly hosts awaited us, outside and in, and circulated throughout the day offering assistance.

My first impression.

Once through registration (lickety-split), delicious snacks & more volunteers awaited.

4. The materials were beautifully designed, compact, and effective. This neat little package allowed us to have everything at our fingertips. The name badge included the day's agenda on the back, and had a pen inside.

My only critique had to do with a design choice that looked great in full light, but didn't work well in the dim light of the venue. The red text was unreadable whenever the lights were down.

5. Speakers were dynamic, well-managed, and given presentation guidelines. We talk a lot about death by PowerPoint but very few conferences actually do something about it. TED has instituted the TED 10 commandments, which include giving a talk you haven't given before, not selling anything from the stage, and being humble. I think they must also give speakers guidelines on visuals, as nearly all the talks were visually stunning (or, radical notion: no slides at all—a fantastic speaker telling us a story.) They also give strict time limits... some people have 8 minutes, some 16. This helps break up the day, keep it moving, and encourages speakers to edit, edit, edit. Speakers were organized roughly by theme into sections, with 30-minute breaks in between. Slides provided a countdown (e.g. 5 minutes left in the break), while a well-chosen TED video provided the buffer to get people back to their seats.

6. They included live performance. Why don't more conferences do this? While your conference might not be able to kick off and end with global phenomenon Jake Shimabukuro on ukulele (yes, you read that right), surely you can find some local talent who would be happy to play, dance, or paint in front of a live audience. Flamenco ukulele. Bluegrass ukulele. Schubert ukelele. Wrap your brain around that at a conference.

7. They gave you guidelines for interacting with other attendees: Meet at least six new people. Ask people what they love to do, not what they do. Put down your devices and be in the room. Change your seat at the end of each break. Approach people with this idea: "How can I serve you?" instead of, "What can you do for me?" They also gave us long enough breaks to actually interact.

A huge thank-you to the TEDxSanDiego organizers, sponsors, speakers, and attendees as well as the venue Anthology... It was a life-changing experience.

Sunday's Signpost

2010-11-07T02:54:00.000-08:00

How do you make an airport friendlier? Cookies help! They have lovely volunteers greeting you when you arrive, with cookies.

Sunday's Signpost

2010-10-31T02:56:00.000-07:00

Seen on a food booth at a downtown street fair in Indiana... very smart to take customer comments and turn them into advertising testimonials!

Bathroom Blogfest signpost

2010-10-29T12:01:00.000-07:00

Loved this sign at San Jose International Airport... makes the connection between our behavior and the lovely nearby wetlands. Tells me they are serious about recycling. And it's clear they want to hear from me. Great communication!

This year's Bathroom Blogfest included 30+ bloggers from all over the world, writing about the importance of bathrooms and other forgotten spaces in the customer experience. Check out the group blog here, and be sure to visit the other bloggers listed below for interesting and insightful posts.

Here are the other bloggers participating:

Blogger	Blog Name	Blog URL
Susan Abbott	Customer Experience Crossroads	http://www.customercrossroads.com/customercrossroads/
Paul Anater	Kitchen and Residential Design	http://www.KitchenAndResidentialDesign.com
Shannon Bilby	Big Bob's Outlet	http://blog.bigbobsoutlet.com/
Shannon Bilby	Carpets N More Blog	http://blog.carpetsnmore.com/
Shannon Bilby	Dolphin Carpet Blog	http://blog.dolphincarpet.com/
Shannon Bilby	From The Floors Up	http://fromthefloorsup.com/
Shannon Bilby	My Big Bob's Blog	http://blog.mybigbobs.com/
Toby Bloomberg	Diva Marketing	http://bloombergmarketing.blogs.com/bloomberg_marketing/
Laurence Borel	Blog Till You Drop	http://www.laurenceborel.com/
Bill Buyok	Avente Tile Talk Blog	http://tiletalk.blogspot.com/
Jeanne Byington	The Importance of Earnest Service	http://blog.jmbyington.com/
Becky Carroll	Customers Rock!	http://customersrock.net/
Marianna Chapman	Results Revolution	http://www.resultsrevolution.com
Katie Clark	Practial Katie	http://practicalkatie.blogspot.com/
Nora DePalma	American Standard's Professor Toilet	http://www.professortoilet.com/
Nora DePalma	O'Reilly DePalma: The Blog	http://www.oreilly-depalma.com/blog/
Leigh Durst	LivePath Experience Architect Weblog	http://livepath.blogspot.com/
Valerie Fritz	The AwarepointBlog	http://www.awarepointblog.com/
Iris Garrott	Checking In and Checking Out	http://circulating.wordpress.com/
Tish Grier	The Constant Observer	http://spap-oop.blogspot.com
Renee LeCroy	Your Fifth Wall	http://yourfifthwall.com/
Joseph Michelli	Dr. Joseph Michelli's Blog	www.josephmichelli.com/blog
Veronika Miller	Modenus Blog	http://www.modenus.com/blog
Arpi Nalbandian	TILE Magazine Editor Blog	http://www.tilemagonline.com/Articles/Blog_Nalbandian
Maria Palma	People 2 People Service	http://www.people2peopleservice.com/
Reshma Bachwani Paritosh	The Qualitative Research Blog	http://www.onqualitativeresearch.blogspot.com/
David Polinchock	Polinchock's Ponderings	http://blog.polinchock.com/
Victoria Redshaw & Shelley Pond	Scarlet Opus Trends Blog	http://trendsblog.co.uk/
David Reich	My 2 Cents	http://reichcomm.typepad.com/my_weblog/
Sandy Renshaw	Around Des Moines	http://www.arounddesmoines.com/
Sandy Renshaw	Purple Wren	http://www.purplewren.com/
Bethany Richmond	Carpet and Rug Institute Blog	http://www.carpet-and-rug-institute-blog.com/
Bruce Sanders	RIMtailing Blog	http://rimtailing.blogspot.com/
Steve Tokar	Please Be Seated	http://stevetokar.wordpress.com/
Carolyn Townes	Becoming a Woman of Purpose	http://spiritwomen.blogspot.com/
Stephanie Weaver	Experienceology	http://experienceology.blogspot.com/
Christine B. Whittemore	Flooring The Consumer	http://flooringtheconsumer.blogspot.com/
Christine B. Whittemore	Simple Marketing Blog	http://www.simplemarketingblog.com/
Christine & Ted Whittemore	Smoke Rise & Kinnelon Blog	http://smokerise-nj.blogspot.com/
Christine B. Whittemore	The Carpetology Blog	http://carpetology.blogspot.com/
Linda Wright	LindaLoo Build Business With Better Bathrooms	http://lindaloo.com/

Bathroom Blogfest 2010: Stuck in the 60s

2010-10-25T21:38:00.000-07:00

This year's Bathroom Blogfest includes 30+ bloggers from all over the world, writing about the importance of bathrooms and other forgotten spaces in the customer experience. Check out the group blog here, and be sure to visit the other bloggers listed below for insightful posts all week.

My topic today is forgotten spaces (because I've written so much about bathrooms.)

Airports are the epitome of forgotten spaces, and Chicago's O'Hare has its moments. But they are also doing a few things really well.

We happened to fly out of the oldest terminal in O'Hare, which is still a bit stuck in the 60s.

Courtesy of Pleasant Family shopping blog: http://pleasantfamilyshopping.blogspot.com

What I loved is what they've done with it... creating a beautiful waiting space in between concourses, using teenager's art to liven up the windows and artist-painted benches to create wonderful, special places to hang out.

Here are the other bloggers participating:

Blogger	Blog Name	Blog URL
Susan Abbott	Customer Experience Crossroads	http://www.customercrossroads.com/customercrossroads/
Paul Anater	Kitchen and Residential Design	http://www.KitchenAndResidentialDesign.com
Shannon Bilby	Big Bob's Outlet	http://blog.bigbobsoutlet.com/
Shannon Bilby	Carpets N More Blog	http://blog.carpetsnmore.com/
Shannon Bilby	Dolphin Carpet Blog	http://blog.dolphincarpet.com/
Shannon Bilby	From The Floors Up	http://fromthefloorsup.com/
Shannon Bilby	My Big Bob's Blog	http://blog.mybigbobs.com/
Toby Bloomberg	Diva Marketing	http://bloombergmarketing.blogs.com/bloomberg_marketing/
Laurence Borel	Blog Till You Drop	http://www.laurenceborel.com/
Bill Buyok	Avente Tile Talk Blog	http://tiletalk.blogspot.com/
Jeanne Byington	The Importance of Earnest Service	http://blog.jmbyington.com/
Becky Carroll	Customers Rock!	http://customersrock.net/
Marianna Chapman	Results Revolution	http://www.resultsrevolution.com
Katie Clark	Practial Katie	http://practicalkatie.blogspot.com/
Nora DePalma	American Standard's Professor Toilet	http://www.professortoilet.com/
Nora DePalma	O'Reilly DePalma: The Blog	http://www.oreilly-depalma.com/blog/
Leigh Durst	LivePath Experience Architect Weblog	http://livepath.blogspot.com/
Valerie Fritz	The AwarepointBlog	http://www.awarepointblog.com/
Iris Garrott	Checking In and Checking Out	http://circulating.wordpress.com/
Tish Grier	The Constant Observer	http://spap-oop.blogspot.com
Renee LeCroy	Your Fifth Wall	http://yourfifthwall.com/
Joseph Michelli	Dr. Joseph Michelli's Blog	www.josephmichelli.com/blog
Veronika Miller	Modenus Blog	http://www.modenus.com/blog
Arpi Nalbandian	TILE Magazine Editor Blog	http://www.tilemagonline.com/Articles/Blog_Nalbandian
Maria Palma	People 2 People Service	http://www.people2peopleservice.com/
Reshma Bachwani Paritosh	The Qualitative Research Blog	http://www.onqualitativeresearch.blogspot.com/
David Polinchock	Polinchock's Ponderings	http://blog.polinchock.com/
Victoria Redshaw & Shelley Pond	Scarlet Opus Trends Blog	http://trendsblog.co.uk/
David Reich	My 2 Cents	http://reichcomm.typepad.com/my_weblog/
Sandy Renshaw	Around Des Moines	http://www.arounddesmoines.com/
Sandy Renshaw	Purple Wren	http://www.purplewren.com/
Bethany Richmond	Carpet and Rug Institute Blog	http://www.carpet-and-rug-institute-blog.com/
Bruce Sanders	RIMtailing Blog	http://rimtailing.blogspot.com/
Steve Tokar	Please Be Seated	http://stevetokar.wordpress.com/
Carolyn Townes	Becoming a Woman of Purpose	http://spiritwomen.blogspot.com/
Stephanie Weaver	Experienceology	http://experienceology.blogspot.com/
Christine B. Whittemore	Flooring The Consumer	http://flooringtheconsumer.blogspot.com/
Christine B. Whittemore	Simple Marketing Blog	http://www.simplemarketingblog.com/
Christine & Ted Whittemore	Smoke Rise & Kinnelon Blog	http://smokerise-nj.blogspot.com/
Christine B. Whittemore	The Carpetology Blog	http://carpetology.blogspot.com/
Linda Wright	LindaLoo Build Business With Better Bathrooms	http://lindaloo.com/

Sunday's signpost

2010-10-24T05:47:00.000-07:00

Spotted at a harvest photo-op at the Sherman Oaks Galleria.

Social media workshop at Portland Art Museum

2010-10-17T21:19:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who participated today... we had 20 attendees representing Portland, Seattle, Hawai'i, and Utah, plus Oakland, San Francisco, and San Diego. It was a really fun session, with some presentations mixed in with small group discussion and Q & A. Here are some quick moments... James Leventhal of the Contemporary Jewish Museum started us off with a fantastic overview of web 2.0 and what it means for museums... and later Mark Patel of OMSI gave us the overview of his small group discussion.

Sunday's Signpost

2010-10-17T02:52:00.000-07:00

Loved this juxtaposition in Amish country, near Ft. Wayne, IN.

Visitor experience at Conner Prairie Interactive History Park

2010-10-13T03:16:00.000-07:00

I had the pleasure of making a field trip Conner Prairie, famous for its living history, which recently changed its name from a museum to an "interactive history park." I was curious to see if the newer style of interpretation, as shown in their CD-ROM Opening Doors, was as effective as I'd heard. This post will cover the first person interpretation, done mainly in the section called Prairietown. The buildings are not original to the site, but are all old buildings moved from other locations in Indiana.

Everyone you see in this area is in period attire, unless a staff member has entered from another area. But they still don't break character. Here's a short clip, including one amazing volunteer named Iris O'Donnell who is 12.

In the doctor's house... apothecary items made from their garden.

Handbills outside buildings tell changing stories.

A room at the Golden Eagle Inn, where you learn that you would share this bed.

Kitties are part of the story, and probably offer vector control as well.

Toys invite kids to jump in and play.

Here are the invites for the daily party, which visitors can help write out or take with them.

I loved how everything was touchable and nearly all the buildings were staffed, had fires going, and had food cooking. It was a truly remarkable museum experience! More in another post about some other aspects of the Conner Prairie visitor experience.

Sunday's Signpost

2010-10-10T02:49:00.000-07:00

Never thought I'd see a regulatory sign like this... but there it was atOuabache State Park in Indiana, clearly in Amish country.

Thinking about your museum's "voice"

2010-09-17T13:59:00.000-07:00

In my workshops (and my book) I talk about the importance of creating a unique voice for your museum. This voice can be thought of as the person (real or imagined) who is "speaking" throughout your communication.

I wrote a post about Rockfish Restaurants, whose voice conveys the sense of humor of founder Randy DeWitt.

Another great example is the hilarious Q&A page of woot.com, a Web site that sells one item per day until it's sold out. The extra benefit is that Woot took something that is usually pretty stale and made it worth reading all the fine print.

Tip of the day: An authentic voice doesn't come from copying another company that's doing it successfully. Instead, look at who you are and what you stand for, and create something that's authentic to you and your brand.

Technorati Tags: customer experience, customer communication, authenticity

Sunday's signpost

2010-09-04T12:02:00.000-07:00

This is the new wayfinding system at Old Town San Diego State Historic Park. The overall sign is facing the correct direction, so that it matches what visitors see. The watercolor-style illustration has a historic feel, which works with the park's overall branding. It's done in an isonometric style, giving the buildings some depth and shadow, which also helps visitors "read" the map. And the you-are-here button is three-dimensional and red. Great job.

Every piece of paper is part of your museum's brand experience

2010-09-01T12:06:00.000-07:00

I see this sort of thing at museums all the time... check your flyers today. And your school group information. And your teacher confirmation letters. I guarantee you have at least one of these floating around.

A while back, as I walked into one of my favorite stores, Target, I noticed a young employee who was handing out small flyers to customers who were entering. I assumed it was a promotion. Here’s what I was handed:

Can’t read it? It’s no better in person. It must have been copied off of an original that was on dark red paper, so the copy is nearly illegible. Here’s what it says:

Target Stores
Come join us!
Target in Mission Valley is now seeking fun and friendly people for a variety of positions in our store.

It goes on to list the type of positions and the benefits, and ends with:
Apply in person for your on the spot interview!

Hmmm. I immediately thought of the cool Target TV spots, the only commercials that I actually watch. Surely those savvy corporate designers could come up with a template that could be customized for a particular store and printed up properly? Surely someone must have noticed how poor the quality was on these, and that they might not draw good new employees to the store? Didn't someone notice it was crookedly cut? At any rate, this small slip of paper broke this great brand for me, just a little bit, making me think that this Target was a little bit shoddy compared to others.

Say it isn't so!

Tip of the Day: Every single message, in every media, is part of your brand. Never "whip something up." When you create a graphic identity, have your designer create some flexible templates, on software you can access, so that you are always putting out quality pieces.

Sunday's signpost

2010-08-29T12:00:00.000-07:00

We saw this sign on an overlook at a castle in Lisbon, Portugal. This is an interesting alternative to porcelain enamel signs, which work well in locations where things don't change, like historic or natural overlooks. It's very Portuguese as well... Lisbon is loaded with gorgeous tile.

Is your visitor experience broken?

2010-08-25T12:34:00.000-07:00

I hadn't watched this since I posted it three years ago. It's still as funny and educational as ever.

Seth Godin's hilarious talk on broken experiences is still a must-see. One of the things I help clients understand is how their visitor experience might be broken, and how to fix it. Enjoy.

Sunday's signpost

2010-08-22T12:28:00.000-07:00

Okay, so when the previous French restaurant closes due to lack of customers, and you're planning on opening another French restaurant in this location, what do you name it? NOT "Bistro Au Revoir" (Goodbye, Bistro).

Visitor experience at Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center

2010-08-18T07:21:00.000-07:00

In the past I have had the pleasure of visiting the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. The center, a little south of Austin, TX is a beautiful example of mission and business practice being aligned.

Buildings are built using sustainable green building practices.

Cooling stone breezeways were designed to give visitors a place to get out of the sun, as well as cool the buildings. Note the chilled drinking water dispenser on the right.

This water cistern collects and holds rainwater for use by the facility, while also being beautifully striking.

Tip of the Day: My only constructive critique is about their name. While Lady Bird Johnson is beloved in Texas, her name doesn't convey what this facility is truly about. And "wildflower center" conjures up an image of wide-open fields of Texas bluebonnets, not this wonderful garden, shop, cafe, and research facility. Since writing this original post, the Center is now part of the University of Texas at Austin. I hope they consider a more descriptive and customer-friendly name brand to get visitors to see this wonderful garden.

Improving the effectiveness of rules signs

2010-08-11T10:19:00.000-07:00

UK researchers Melissa Bateson, Daniel Nettle, and Gilbert Roberts found that people are more likely to follow posted rules if the sign includes an image of eyes watching them. I posted this several years ago, and am wondering if any museums or zoos tried it?

I'm frequently asked for ideas on how to word "rules" signs so that visitors follow them. This innovative study, which you can find on Daniel Nettle's Web site, studied whether people were more likely to donate money to an office coffee fund if the poster design changed--from a header of flowers to human eyes. They studied several different versions of the poster, with and without eyes, and found that people were three times as likely to comply with the posted rules when eyes were present.

Images used on poster (from their paper posted online)

They are guessing that the feeling of being watched, however subtle, influences behavior. It's called "reputational concern" in behaviorist-speak. So, if you work at a zoo, and don't want people pounding on the glass at a primate exhibit, try primate eyes on the sign. In a natural history or archeology museum, try a photograph of a person's eyes that is themed to your exhibits. See their paper for more specifics.

Sunday's signpost

2010-08-08T10:11:00.000-07:00

This state historic park recently went through a branding process. These double banners promote events and also identify parking lots.

Visitor experience tips from a high-end grocery store

2010-08-04T10:05:00.000-07:00

I first wrote about Central Market, in Austin, TX four years ago. It's an upscale grocery store on steroids. The store is arranged in enclosed sections; as you walk through you feel like you are discovering new stores within a store. A fabulous take-out cafe. Incredible flowers. Amazing produce. Bulk foods that go on for aisles. While I was intrigued, I told myself, “I’ve seen this stuff before. They just have more of it.” If you're a museum that has very similar exhibits to other museums in your category (science center, children's museum, natural history museum), read on to learn how this store wowed me.

And then I found the Fresh Spa Bar.

It’s set up like a salad bar, with chilled pots of moisturizers, masques, foot polishes, and sugar scrubs. It smelled heavenly and luxurious, and the chilled cart reinforced that everything was freshly concocted. How could you take a "typical" exhibit and give it a twist that sets it apart?

I could choose a cute one-ounce pot of anything for $2.99, stick on the label, and fill it up. Now, I don’t usually buy anything that costs $48 per pound! But at that moment I wasn’t interested in doing the math; this was fun and special. Even though I didn’t need anything, it was sweltering outside, and I was getting on a plane, I mixed up three containers, and then continued shopping.

Some Central Market staff members, called Foodies, are encouraged to open any product for a taste, and it’s one of the most popular tourist attractions in Austin. They got me excited about spending $25, because the experience was so enchanting, so different. Note that this grocery store is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Austin! This is your competition, museum people!

This is an excerpt from Creating Great Visitor Experiences: A Guide for Museums, Parks, Zoos, Gardens, and Libraries. Thanks to Kevin Blessing, General Manager of the North Lamar store, for the interview and permission to use photos.

Sunday's signpost

2010-08-01T12:21:00.000-07:00

Sometimes a hand-made sign is still the most effective. I especially love the Skippy peanut butter box.

Infusing a visitor experience with tone and voice

2010-07-28T12:25:00.000-07:00

What I love about this customer experience example is sharing the specifics of the "voice" of this business. Rockfish restaurants are found throughout the American Southwest.

What stands out is the Rockfish sense of humor, which flows directly downstream from owner Randy DeWitt. Waitstaff t-shirts have funny sayings on the back like, "Fish Happens." The women's room sign reads "Inboards." (And the men's, "Outboards.") While this tone and style might not be appropriate for a museum, it's a wonderful example of how having such a strong voice and point of view can define an entity.

Need the bathroom?

Another genius move is the way they've incorporated people's own fishing photos into the experience. This creates the feeling of "my booth" which is something museums don't generally offer. How can you create this feeling of ownership at your museum?

Tip of the day: Be true to yourself. This business has created a strong authentic voice, based on the owner's own sense of humor, that is carried throughout every aspect of the business. Creating or leveraging your museum's unique point of view, and defining your voice, is the first step towards creating a memorable, destination experience that people will want to repeat.

Sunday's signpost

2010-07-25T12:57:00.000-07:00

Who says regulatory signs can't be themed? Here's one from Old Town San Diego State Historic Park.

What museums can learn from a self-serve dog wash

2010-07-21T17:44:00.000-07:00

I first reported on South Bark Dog Wash in May 2006. This is another business I feature in my Experienceology workshop. What can museums learn from a place like this?

One thing that's changed in four years is the neighborhood. As new small businesses moved in to South Park, they were welcomed into the business association (Vella and Walker were founding members). They host a quarterly event, called the South Park Walkabout, that has created a feeling that South Park is a destination. Are you, as a museum, actively working within your immediate community to create this kind of atmosphere? Are you partnering with everyone possible to make that happen? I even know a couple who went to the Walkabout and then bought a house in the neighborhood as a result. Does your museum have that kind of impact?

Owners Lisa Vella and Donna Walker have focused on customer loyalty from the beginning. They don’t view a visit as a one-shot deal. Instead, they’ve designed their business to cater to people for the life of their pet. Is your museum thinking this specifically about what you can offer to repeat visitors?

South Bark is strategically located just two blocks from a busy off-leash park. How well do you know your neighborhood? How well does your museum relate to its immediate surroundings?

This entire experience is designed for the customer's comfort (both the owners and the pets). I've written a LOT about visitor comfort over the years, and yet I still visit museums with too little seating and hard to read labels.

Tubs are at the right height to wash without stooping over. The water is warm, and the aprons keep you (reasonably) dry. Friendly staffers can answer many questions about skin problems and recommend an array of products to try.

It’s comfortable for the dogs, too, starting with their signature blueberry facial, which has become a best-selling product and is now available online. This product was designed as a result of watching clients avoid their dogs faces, which are often the dirtiest part of the dog. The staff members start the bath with the facial, and then you do the rest. How often do you watch your visitors to see what they need, and then create something to fill it?

Something I talk about a lot I call "From loyalty to lifestyle." Starbucks figured this one out years ago... you want to be part of your customer's lifestyle... a regular part of their day or week. How can your museum fill ongoing needs for your visitors?

South Bark wants to serve customers for the life of their dog. Rather than a one-time $12 bath, they strive to provide enough services (obedience classes, food, treats, toys, dental cleaning, holiday photos) to keep customers coming back every month. They provide a comfortable, educational, and fun atmosphere, with lots of music and laughter.

Tip of the day: Build visitor loyalty by creating a space where the visitor is the star. Offer enough service and product variety to meet visitor needs, as long as every element builds on your experience.

Sunday's signpost

2010-07-18T12:42:00.000-07:00

Loved how Whole Foods has really committed to local produce... this sign lists all the farms they support and the mileage to the store. It's this kind of detailed, transparent information that increases customer trust. Are there ways that you could communicate in a similar manner with your museum visitors?

Favorite visitor experience posts, revisited

2010-07-16T17:28:00.000-07:00

It's the summer, and I've been writing this blog for more than four years. Amazing! I've decided to present some of my favorite previous posts, with new commentary. First up:

Jungle Roots Children's Dentistry in Chandler, AZ. This is one of the examples I show in my full-day Experienceology workshop, and people are still amazed by it. From the outside, this business looks like any other strip mall facade. Once inside, the upscale the waiting room is classy and pretty but still doesn't prepare you for what's in store.

Not only is everything themed, but they have really thought through what their audience needs. I always encourage my museum clients to do this as well. As it's always blazing hot in Phoenix, the free cold water in the fridge is a very specific way to welcome clients.

Just beyond reception, you enter the jungle, with "rocks" to sit on under a huge tree, video games to play, rock walls carved with friendly-faced glyphs, jungle-appropriate stuffed animals, and murals on the walls. Beyond nice decor, they've created an entire themed experience from start to finish. They put themselves in their patients' (small) shoes and decided that going off alone into a tiny room for dentistry might be scary. So the treatment area is one big space, with video games and DVDs for the kids to play with while they're waiting. If you have an area where visitors wait, are there ways to make it this appealing?

Kids can see that other kids are getting treated and doing fine, while the fun atmosphere makes going to the dentist memorable.

Dr. John Culp hired Larson Construction in Tucson, Arizona, to do the interior. Larson is famous for their who zoo and theme park exhibits. Their theming extends all the way through the business: staff attire (camo scrubs), the bathroom, and the artwork on the walls. It's a wonderful example of how the Experience Economy has raised the bar for all types of facilities that serve the public, including museums, parks, gardens, and libraries.

Tip of the day: Theming without heart can't create a great experience on its own. Dr. Culp is wonderful with kids and is highly respected in Phoenix, and their staff members are all professional and give warm customer service. Having this hook sets them apart, creates wonderful word-of-mouth advertising, and generates lots of local press.

Sunday's signpost

2010-07-11T11:22:00.001-07:00

Thanks to reader Susan C. for sending me this photo from Bryce Canyon. Awesome example of a friendly, fun tone on a rules sign.

Sunday's signpost

2010-06-27T12:00:00.000-07:00

Loved these friendly, welcoming signage examples at the Audubon Center at Debs Park in Los Angeles, CA.

Everything is bilingual. One of the first things you see is this welcoming backpack. Great message to give visitors right off the bat.

Sunday's signpost

2010-06-20T12:08:00.000-07:00

A million thanks to Jill Sabo for this outstanding example of existential signage.

The Participatory Museum with Nina Simon: Download now available

2010-06-17T11:15:00.000-07:00

Nina Simon was my guest in the virtual classroom on June 9, and the download is now available for viewing on demand.

If you've wanted the chance to hear Nina speak and have missed her at conferences, here is your chance. Nina is the author of The Participatory Museum, the Museum Two blog, a column in Museum magazine, and an experiential exhibit designer with a broad list of clients.
Nina's been taking the museum world by storm in the last several years, and took some time out of her busy travel and speaking schedule to join us for an intimate chat in the virtual classroom. We had a fun and lively conversation with the participants and Nina showed some fantastic examples.

This year we've instituted a no-refusal pricing policy. The price for the download is $10. But, if you are unemployed, a student, or simply can't afford the full fee, contact us if you need a discount on the fee. Experienceology's mission is to serve museum professionals by bringing top-notch consulting talent to your desktop at a price you can afford.

Museum visitor experience workshop coming to Phoenix!

2010-06-14T13:02:00.000-07:00

For those of you in range of Phoenix, Arizona, my full-day Experienceology workshop is coming to the Arizona Museum of Natural History as part of the Visitor Studies Association annual conference.

The workshop will be held at the Arizona Museum of Natural History in Phoenix on Tuesday, July 27 from 9 am to 4 pm. Price is $155 for non-members. Click here to register. (Lunch is on your own.)

Workshop Description:
This lively full-day hands-on workshop will provide you with an 8-step process you can use to analyze your organization's visitor experience and see how to help improve it. Throughout the day you'll work on an individual progressive exercise, discussing how each step applies to your site. In the afternoon you'll work in small groups to analyze the host museum's experience and then debrief it together. I provide worksheets, handouts, goody bags, and a reading list. Hundreds of examples from a variety of experience-based businesses as well as great libraries and museums will be featured throughout the day.

Here's what past participants have said about the full-day Experienceology workshop:
"Thank you so much for the wonderful workshop. All staff who attended enjoyed your presentation and all the feedback was good to hear. I look forward to reading your book and several of the other ones on your list. You have helped put some more excitement into the changes we are making at Lindsay."
Chris Bernard, Lindsay Wildlife Museum, Walnut Creek, CA

"Well organized, fun to experience, provocative for daily practice, and worth the fee. Well-paced and very rich. I learned much even though I have been with this field a long, long time. Great literature review and applied expertise. Am looking forward to your presentation for our students."
Susan Spero, Ph.D., Professor of Museum Studies, John F. Kennedy University, Berkeley, CA

"Interesting, engaging, energizing... gave our docents a sense of ownership... they immediately began rearranging our Visitor Center to make it more welcoming."
Sarah Emerson, Volunteer Coordinator, Tijuana Estuary/CA State Parks, Chula Vista, CA

"Just what I needed to take a fresh look at the Wildflower Center. I liked the way it was covered from Invitation through Finale so we could evaluate each aspect of the Wildflower Center separately. The practical exercises reminded me after I got home about what I had learned."
Saralee Tiede, Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center, Austin, TX

I hope to have you join us in Phoenix!

Sunday's signpost

2010-06-13T12:06:00.000-07:00

Loved this "don't" sign at the Santa Monica Museum of Art.

Sunday's signpost

2010-06-06T12:04:00.000-07:00

Loved how The Autry Museum updated this older donor sign and made it fresh without having to replace it.

Home Lands at the Autry: exhibit experience review

2010-06-04T10:00:00.000-07:00

I was able to get over to the Autry Museum of Western Heritage to see their newest exhibition called Home Lands: How Women Made the West. It's truly one of THE most creative and engaging exhibits I've ever seen, so I wanted to do it justice with a full blog post and some research. The show runs at the Autry through August 22, 2010 in Los Angeles, and will travel to other venues afterwards (see below for locations and dates).

I've got some details on the exhibit development process from designer Tim McNeil and curator Carolyn Brucken later in this post.

When you walk in, the first thing you notice is the unusual use of materials, which goes throughout the show. It was this surprise, whimsy, and creativity that drew me in completely. I read more labels in that show than I have in years (I tend to skim a lot).

I also loved how they put the labels in unexpected places, using unexpected materials, like burning the text into wood and stitching the label by hand onto jute strapping.

They did an exceptional job of finding individual stories that were totally rich, and using them to bring each of the three sections to life.

The A/V components were woven in beautifully... video projected onto a burlap wall, old-style telephones gave you interview clips with the first black doctor in Colorado.

Last, I loved how each section had a different look, and they created little pods or vignettes to showcase different women. This section on women authors had first editions mounted in the "wall" with audio clips of the books on the old-timey telephone components. The hanging booklet lists all the books on the wall.

I also loved that they added a social media component as a talkback feature.

Here's some background on the design approach from Tim McNeil:

The exhibition was destined to be an interesting one right from the outset since the synergy between the Autry curatorial team and design team was excellent. We had such a blast designing this one. Every exhibit and idea is different with a huge amount of background research and experimentation. We attempted to push the "history exhibition" in some new directions, principally using compelling visitor experiences and a consistently high level of design details to wrap an engaging narrative around a rather eclectic group of diverse objects. A range of objects, people and stories that collectively illustrate a fascinating new take on the West.

Some of the design objectives were:

Highly collaborative curatorial process
Expressive design approach—everything has meaning
Design becomes symbolic of stories and ideas
Variety of content access points
Mix of media and communication approaches
High degree of material exploration and construction—domestic in feel
Deliberately low-tech on the exterior—invisible media
Travel to multiple venues
Keep within a limited budget

Exhibition Team:
Curators: Carolyn Brucken and Viginia Scharff
Design and Interpretive Approach: Muniz/McNeil Design
Exhibition Installation and Fabrication: Autry inhouse team, Cinnabar, Ironwood Scenic
Media Production: Autry inhouse team and Kristy Baltezore

And from the curatorial side, Carolyn Brucken, PhD who is the Associate Curator for Western Women's History at the Autry:

1. The development process was over six years and included the exhibition, the Home Lands companion book, and a teachers' curriculum developed in collaboration with the National Center for History in the Schools.

2. Regarding our process, collaborations were at the heart of the exhibition. The exhibition originated from the merger of the Women of the West Museum in Boulder with the Autry National Center in Los Angeles and from the very beginning I worked closely with Virginia Scharff, Professor of History at the University of New Mexico and Chair of Women of the West at the Autry, to create the exhibition. The exhibition benefited hugely from the open collaboration of Virginia and myself with our designers Tim McNeil and Christopher Muniz. We also brought in three scholars as advisors very early in the process in 2005 and worked closely with the National Center for History in the Schools and teachers in Colorado, Oregon, New Mexico, and California for much of the project as well.

3. Related to content, our desire was to make discovery central to the exhibition content. Virginia, Tim, Christopher and myself spent a great deal of time discussing how to present artifacts and complex ideas in ways that engaged directly with the visitors. It was amazing to work with such a smart group of people and build something together.

3. We knew we wanted to create an exhibition narrative that encompassed the diversity of women across different historical periods and across different cultures as we felt that many exhibitions tend to compartmentalize women's history. The challenge was finding ways to hold the different stories and moments in time together, especially in the exhibition text. In part, we selected a specific resource for each of the three sections to serve hopefully as a connecting thread, as well as ground the exhibition in specific environments and places.

4. I'm proud that the exhibition team as well as the Autry was willing to take risks on this show, and to try new ways of engaging our public without compromising on the scholarship or complexity of the story we were trying to tell.

Kudos to everyone involved on this amazing visitor experience! Do try to see it if you're in Los Angeles this summer, or see it when it travels:

Missouri History Museum, St. Louis—Oct. 15, 2012-Jan.15, 2011
The Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma—Feb. 2011-May 2011
The Palace of Governors, New Mexico History Museum, Santa Fe—June 2011-Sept. 2011.

They are open to considering an additional fall 2011 venue. Any interested institution can contact Carolyn for additional information: cbrucken [at] theautry.org.

Three Transformations: Session at AAM 10

2010-06-03T05:14:00.000-07:00

As promised, here are my notes from this inspiring session at #aam10. The speakers were Guy Hermann, James Kern, and Ellen Rosenthal.

Moderator Guy Hermann is a museum master planner with a firm called Museum Insights, and introduced the session as showcasing three examples of museums transforming themselves into audience-driven sites. As he said, "Each transformation was driven by a clear focus on how best to serve the museum's audiences and community, creating vibrant, interesting, and completely different results."

Hermann spoke for Rachel Desgrosseilliers, Executive Director of Museum L-A in Lewiston, Maine, who was not able to attend. At its heart, Museum L-A could be described as a mill museum, but it clearly is much more than that. Their terrific tag line is: The story of work and community in Lewiston-Auburn. They defined the museum based on how it relates to this former mill community. One thing they've focused on is doing lots of reunions. I liked this from their website:
The history of the industrial community captured in the museum will be presented along three parallel lines that continue from the past into the present and future:

The people who worked in local industries,
Business and technological innovation and creativity, and
The economic, civic, and cultural development of Lewiston and Auburn.

My sense is that the focus on people, oral histories, and reunions has thoroughly engaged the community and captured a feeling of pride, so that this museum can continue to grow and become a vital part of the landscape.

Next up was Ellen Rosenthal, President and CEO of Conner Prairie in Fishers, Indiana. Conner Prairie is one of the oldest living history museums in the U.S. For years, docents in historic clothing worked and taught about farm life at Conner Prairie. But it had become a "been there, done that" destination. People came once in 4th grade, came back once as parents, and once as grandparents. This wasn't a sustainable model for the institution, so they have redefined themselves as an interactive history park (showing visitors interacting in their PR materials is one key difference).

One thing she said was, "All strategy is local. As your community changes, you need to evolve with it." When Conner Prairie began, they were out in the country. Now they are surrounded by suburbs with changing demographics. They focused on teaching their educators and docents how to engage in conversation, not "teach." They have a wonderful CD-ROM that's an excellent resource, called Opening Doors to Great Guest Experiences. They have focused on offering repeatable, open-ended kids' activities that appeal to their surrounding demographic. Their goal is daily family engagement and excitement.

Creative programming: Their 1859 Balloon Voyage attraction. They took advantage of a historical event, the first isntance of "air mail" via balloon, and have built an entire experience around it. Smart, exciting, and revenue-producing.

The last presenter was James Kern, Executive Director of Brucemore in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Brucemore is a historic home and Iowa's only National Historic Trust Property. They have redefined themselves from "historic home" to "the community's home." One resource he recommended was the AASLH pamphlet: How Sustainable is Your Historic House Museum? ($5 download)

Creative programming: They created a live theater production from letters from one of the home's owners, called "Dear Sweetheart." They brought in local artists, performers and designers for a brainstorming session and asked, "Tell us what you see." They offer a series of events on site as well.

Partnering: They have partnered with every single arts organization in Cedar Rapids. When the entire town flooded in 2008, they hosted a benefit called "Moving Home" that raised $50,000 for flood relief. They also became flood conservation central, opening their space as a preservation office, as every other arts organization was flooded.

I loved the creative and unique approaches each of these institutions took towards transformation. As both Pico Iyer and Amy Tan said as well, the key is to find what makes you unique and engage with your community in that way.

Sunday's signpost

2010-05-30T11:44:00.000-07:00

I liked this way of being open to customers: the managers' names and phone numbers are listed right above the desk.

Theme from the AAM conference in LA: affecting change in our world

2010-05-27T08:51:00.000-07:00

This year's American Association of Museums conference offered me a series of inspiring moments. At the PR & Marketing Luncheon, a speaker from Participant Media showcased the amazing roster of films they've produced in their five years in existence, including the Oscar-winning documentaries The Cove and An Inconvenient Truth, Food, Inc., and The Soloist. They evaluate all projects on both commercial potential and the possibility for social change, something that makes sense for museums as well. Each film they do also has a campaign with NGOs, including web sites, social media, petitions, etc. The Soloist (starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey, Jr.) had a campaign to humanize homelessness and mental illness. Standard Operating Procedure was about the Abu Ghraib photos and how they were used as a weapon.

Their latest film, out this fall, is called Waiting for Superman, about the failure of the U.S. educational system. It's about kids in elementary schools who are in lotteries to get into the one decent middle/high school that will give them a way out of their neighborhoods. The preview was amazing and brutal. Museums who are working with inner city neighborhoods, schools, and literacy can visit this link to see how they can participate and help support this important film.

Next up was an Onsite Insight at the Museum of Tolerance. These are mini-field trips that AAM does and are often the best part of these conferences. This entire museum has the big hairy audacious goal of actively fighting intolerance throughout the world, not just commemorating the Holocaust. It's full of high-tech exhibits and covers the topics of genocide, hate speech, slavery, and child abuse. I found the technology at times to be overwhelming, and would have liked a stronger balance of hopeful stories and "what you can do" action points. It may be that teens (who the museum is targeted at) don't find it overwhelming. I also would like to see them invest in more take-home materials, putting a website link at the end of their video clips, curricula for teachers, etc.

At the end of our visit, we saw a personal testimony from Matthew Boger, a gay man who was assaulted in a hate crame when was 13 and left for dead. Years later he became a volunteer at the museum as part of his healing process, and eventually became friends with and now works with his attacker, also a museum volunteer. The short film they showed, From Hate to Hope, was amazing, but having him come out afterwards and talk about his story was goose-bump-raising. We didn't get to meet his former attacker Tim Zaal (normally they do the program together), but my entire experience of this museum was changed. Learn about their story here. They have first-person testimonies like this every day. That powerful first-person interpretation needs to be bottled somehow... it really does make or break an experience.

I also visited the Audubon Center at Debs Park and the Autry Museum of Western Heritage, where I saw one of the most creative exhibits I've ever seen called Homelands: How Women Made the West. My full exhibit review is posted here.

Wednesday was a day of amazing speakers, beginning with travel writer Pico Iyer, author of The Global Soul. One forgets how powerful a good speaker (or "lecture") can be, in the age of bad PowerPoints. Iyer spoke with no slides (he claimed to be "powerless and pointless" but was just the opposite) for about 50 minutes. He talked about the new global citizens: children and young adults who are mixed backgrounds and have more in common with each other (around the world) than they do with their parents. He said that museums can be places of respite and recharging in our overcharged world, a centering space. In an age of images and media one image, one painting, one idea can have incredible impact. People who travel are constantly creating their identities, living like snails with their homes on their backs. He also said it's easy to assume that we're "all connected" because we have this spread of sameness. But every McDonald's around the world is totally different in his opinion, as they reflect their neighborhoods and culture. The way museums can stand out is to celebrate what makes them unique, find their local resonance. Even people who never travel must adapt, as this "new world" is coming to them in their neighbors and schools and workplaces. If museums can do a good job of letting in the world, and be fluid, mobile, and light on their feet, they can become havens for these new world citizens. Museums need to be places where people can learn to read, learn to look, learn to think... Keep up with the times by remaining timeless.

Author Amy Tan was also hilarious, and encouraged museums to bring out their personalities, leaving in the details that bring people there.

The last session I attended was called Three Transformations, and showed how three very different museums have transformed themselves to be community-focused and therefore relevant and vibrant. I'll write a separate post about that as well, as it was full of good ideas.

Thanks to everyone at AAM for putting together such an inspiring several days.

Sunday's signpost

2010-05-23T11:43:00.000-07:00

Fun "wayfinding" at the Oakland, CA airport.

Book review: 101 Places You Gotta See Before You're 12

2010-05-19T11:55:00.000-07:00

Guest blogger: Katherine Johnson

I bought this book at a children's museum bookstore. It lists a range of things that kids would like to experience: cultural events, museums, nature, man-made structures, work places, famous sites, and ordinary places. As an adult I found myself going page by page, noting which things I had done—as a child or adult—and recalling many pleasant experiences I have had in my life.

Some of the ideas will appeal to kids more than adults, or may be things you see in five minutes and move on, which isn't how adults normally plan experiences. Other suggestions involve traveling to a national monument or staying at a place for a while, like eating at an ethnic restaurant.

A few of the ideas turn ordinary experiences into something more remarkable. For example, going to a place to watch people or going to see a famous road are more about a mind set. Seeing these places requires you to think about where you are and what's going on around you rather than enjoying a spectacle created for you. One of the most amusing places a kid should see is a teacher's lounge.

The book comes with stickers that you can use to mark pages: "Awesome," "Wish list," "Boring," "Been There," and so forth, as well as pages for notes in the back so you can write about your experiences.

I brought the book home to my girls, ages 8 and 10, and they are devouring it. We now have a mental list of places they would like to go this summer. We all feel inspired to see as many things as we can. And so far, no fights over use of the stickers (fingers crossed!).

Essentially the book is a stunning endorsement for making the most of every experience.

My thanks to Katherine for sharing this terrific book with my blog readers. Katherine is the new Manager of Teacher and Student Programs at the Chicago Botanic Garden. She can be reached at kjthran [at] gmail.com

Sunday's signpost

2010-05-16T11:41:00.001-07:00

Terrific way to acknowledge an employee of the month.

Social media strategy for museums: Webinar Wed. May 12, 2010

2010-05-05T20:37:00.000-07:00

Join me and my guest Sorel Denholtz in the virtual classroom to learn the ins and outs of using social media in a strategic way for your museum. Click here to register. We have a no-refusal pricing policy. Contact us if you need a discount on the fee. A sliding scale is available for groups.

This 75-minute online class gives you the chance to chat live with Sorel Denholtz, a social media strategist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Sorel is a dynamic speaker who was a hit at at the last CAM conference in San Jose.

Whether you are just getting started with social media or have been involved for a while, we'll offer you a structure to frame your social media efforts. Then Sorel will talk about her work at the California Academy of Sciences, including identifying, prioritizing and engaging with core audiences. She will share both the tactics and the results to date, as well as a brief glimpse into the future. Class registration closes at 5 pm on Tuesday, May 11 and the class size is limited to 50.

When customers start making your commercials

2010-04-28T13:28:00.000-07:00

What is the impact of an online video? And how do you use the power of online video and social media for your advantage? Take a look at this post here, where I show how we made a museum podcast-in-a-day, and all the places you can post an online video for free to promote your museum.

Today I'm talking about your customers (or visitors, in the museum world) making your videos for you. How does that happen? It can happen with a very frustrated or angry customer, who takes to the free internet airwaves to share their grievance with the world. See Kevin Smith's smodcast about his Southwest Airlines flight [note that this is rated R for language], the now-infamous Comcast video, or this very clever one called, "United Breaks Guitars," with over 8 million views to date:

Those are negative examples. Today I want to focus on some recent positive examples that blew me away. The first is this video of a flashmob/crowd dance in Seattle that's basically a joyous commercial for the television show Glee.

This is participatory fun, and at the same time took a ton of work on the part of the organizers, dancers, and videographers. What makes this work so well is it's clearly real people, a bit unpolished, and genuinely lifts your spirits. Could you organize something like this for your museum? Could you tap into a local theater or arts group to encourage things like this to happen at your museum or historic site?

Next is this iPad "commercial" that's better than anything Apple could ever produce.

Get creative. Think about how you might be able to tap into local talent, and crowdsource something unique that works for your institution.

Sunday's Signpost

2010-04-25T18:13:00.001-07:00

From a Prohibition exhibit at St. Louis' Old Courthouse. Reads:
The night before it went into effect, everybody had a big party on account of it being the last chance to get boiled. Now there's a group of wilful men that keeps hollering that the law ain't no good and please modify it so as to give us light wines and beer, but the general attitude in regards to this plea is, as revealed by a personal souse-to-souse canvas, who and the hell would drink them?
Ring Lardner

Sunday's Signpost

2010-04-18T20:36:00.001-07:00

This sign reads:
Are your hands nice and soft?
Do they smell good too?
This soap is for sale in our store!

Smart, and funny.

Inspiring video on reaching Millenials/digital natives

2010-03-24T11:54:00.000-07:00

I don't normally lift items for this blog, but this video was so well done and gave me goosebumps, so I wanted to share it. This is from the YouTube listing:

"This video was prepared by the UK branch of Dorling Kindersley Books and produced by Khaki Films. Originally meant solely for a Dorling Kindersley sales conference, the video was such a hit internally that it is now being shared externally. We hope you enjoy it (and make sure you watch it up to at least the halfway point, there's a surprise!).

Read an interview with the creator of the video on the Penguin Blog. The clip was inspired by a video created by an Argentinian agency, Savaglio/TBWA entitled Truth."

Enjoy, and let me know what you think!

Sunday's Signpost

2010-03-21T11:50:00.001-07:00

Clever wayfinding icons near the La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles, CA. A stylized hieroglyphic fossil shape as the arrows.

Museum video podcast-in-a-day

2010-03-17T12:40:00.000-07:00

Last week I attended a daylong workshop at the CAM Conference sponsored by the California Exhibition Resources Alliance (CERA). The workshop was a Technology Salon for Small Museums and featured presentations throughout the day on how to use technology wisely and efficiently for marketing, interpretation, and in exhibits. It was hosted by the de Saisset Museum at Santa Clara University.

I offered to show people how to create video podcasts and use the video for both promotion and education. So we decided we would create a podcast during the workshop, with the goal of having it up on YouTube by 3 pm. Online video is the most important tool a cultural attraction can use, as it's now the most compelling online content. In addition, one video podcast can be placed, for free, in over 25 outlets. That means one short video is out there in 25 different online spaces, promoting your museum 24/7.

Here are a few of the steps we went through to make this podcast a reality.

Choose content. I asked curator Lindsey Kouvaris to choose three items from their permanent collection that a) would be interesting to talk about, b) could be used to talk about behind-the-scenes aspects of museum work, and for which c) she had permission to broadcast the image.
Prepare still images. Lindsey sent me high-quality stills in advance, along with their museum's logo, and the necessary credit line for the photographer. I pre-loaded these into iPhoto in advance, and created a title card with their logo. The still images can then easily be pulled into iMovie as stills, and you can zoom in on them.
Choose music. I chose four options from Garageband's library that I thought might work for this museum. Once I arrived, I had Lindsey choose the one that best suited her institution's personality. See my handout for more on legal music use.
Charge camera, double-check equipment list before getting on plane.
Shoot interview. I start by telling a joke to get the subject comfortable, and make sure they're looking at me, not the camera. Once I've set up the camera on the tripod, I start recording and then make sure I'm nodding and smiling a lot to keep their energy up and focused on me.

For this workshop, I shot the last portion of the interview in the workshop space, so all the attendees could see how I did it. Lindsey was a trouper! Then I began editing while the other presenters were doing their thing. At about 1:15 pm, I plugged my laptop into the projector and showed them the partially completed podcast (about half done at that point). The sound levels weren't quite right, but they could see everything coming together. And by 3 pm, it was indeed up on YouTube. I also showed them another video piece, and the multiple locations it had been used. Here is the final video:

While this felt a little crazy to do under the gun, it was a fun challenge and I think it illustrated that video has become both accessible, affordable, and easy. Click here for the handout I created, which lists all the outlets where I place my video podcasts and details about the hardware and software I use. Before I left, Lindsey had already embedded the link in their Facebook Page. :)

Thanks to Rebecca Schapp and Lindsey Kouvaris of the de Saisset Museum for hosting, and to Adrienne McGraw and Lexie Smith Kliebe of CERA for putting together such a terrific day.

Sunday's Signpost

2010-03-14T12:04:00.000-07:00

This struck me as so simple and so brilliant... placing a sale item right at the cash register, then keeping them stocked as they fly into people's shopping bags.

Dazzling service strategies: fantastic conference session

2010-03-10T12:14:00.000-08:00

I had the wonderful opportunity to watch two top National Park Service trainers in action on February 8, 2010 at the Association of Partners for Public Lands conference here in San Diego. Nicki Phelps and Rich Weideman were a truly dynamic duo; I learned as much from their presentation style as I did from the presentation itself. Here are some highlights:

Nicki and Rich work for the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy in San Francisco. They covered four core service strategies, with terrific visuals, examples, and audience participation. They are:

Reliability
Surprise
Recovery
Quality

Reliability relates to providing consistency throughout your experience, products, and service, so that visitors have confidence in you.

Surprise means providing unexpected, unusual, non-traditional, and personal aspects to experiences. I liked Nicki's mantra of shifting from "no, can't, don't" to "yes, how, will."

(Meaning, instead of your first reaction being "no, we can't or don't do that"—to shift to an attitude of "yes, let me figure out how we will make that happen for you."

For the Recovery discussion, Nicki brought in a hotel staffer who had been particularly helpful to her the day prior. I loved that she made it personal to herself, topical to the event, recognized an actual person, and gave him a thank-you gift in front of all of us. You can train for Recovery by teaching staff members to:

Listen
Repeat
Problem-solve together
Act
Follow up

We also talked about how truly great service comes from a long-term perspective, wanting to have customers for life. And in national parks (as well as museums), our visitors/customers are also constituents, often voting for tax increases or bond measures to support these public resources.

Last, Quality involves creating a seamless, branded environment with exhibits, uniforms, and products that reflect how you want people to view your institution or site.

Sunday's Signpost

2010-03-07T17:13:00.000-08:00

Really nice you-are-here map with touchable 3-D elements at California Center for the Arts, Escondido.

Branded product development session at APPL

2010-03-03T12:34:00.000-08:00

I had the wonderful opportunity to sit in on a session on product development by Robert Lieber on February 10, 2010 at the Association of Partners for Public Lands conference here in San Diego.

Robert works for the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy in San Francisco. He is truly a brilliant branded product developer. Here are some highlights from his presentation:

Retail is dynamic, you want to be turning inventory, and always changing displays and adding new products when you can. Products you develop have a larger margin than books, so while they are an investment of time and resources, they have a larger payoff as well.

You want to create products that educate, celebrate, engage, and promote your site.

You can tell interpretive stories through a product category. One example on Alcatraz (the former Federal Prison that is now a national park) is the theme of recreation. The first product they developed is the Alcatraz baseball. The baseball's packaging tells some of the story of recreation at the prison... there will be other products in this category that flesh out this story.

Sometimes products help flesh out the time period: What was it like to live in San Francisco when Alcatraz was active? They found period cartoons and turned them into decals.

In some cases, the product is a reproduction, like this inmate's cup. Or they might create a product to help raise money for preservation, like this "Save The Rock." Wildflower seeds help tell the story of the garden restoration project.

They have also taken actual historic text, like regulations, and designed a whole product line of metal signs, mugs, magnets, and other items. These are popular with parents and teachers!

If you run a museum shop, I'd encourage you to spend some time in the Conservancy's online store. I guarantee you will be inspired with new product ideas!

Sunday's Signpost

2010-02-28T12:06:00.000-08:00

On the mirror in the bathroom at Pizza Fusion: "This person is changing the world." Nice!

Going Mobile: Technology with Titus Bicknell

2010-02-24T14:51:00.000-08:00

The Balboa Park Online Collaborative hosted a workshop on February 16 and 17, 2010 on mobile interpretive tools and strategy. Day Two on technology featured Titus Bicknell, Director of Information Technology for Experius Academy. You can find a detailed wiki page for this workshop here, including all of Nancy and Titus Bicknell's slides. See this post for Nancy Proctor's presentation and video interview.

Here's my interview with Titus, that helps give an overview of his talk (minus the highly technical content):

Titus suggested that you begin with what the audience requires in terms of content, and balance that with your technology infrastructure and business model. Do you have in-house capabilities? A central technology resource (like Balboa Park does)? Will you be using external consultants or services? Are you for-profit? Nonprofit? Do you have to demonstrate ROI? (Later, he talked about the importance of understanding your technology infrastructure if you are going to create a mobile tour or app. If the digital assets your tour needs to display are located in servers off-site, it might take forever for those assets to load on a phone in the gallery.) All these questions should feed into your decision-making process.

Titus offered a complex diagram for helping you decide on choosing a platform. (Slide 21 of his slide deck.) First consider: Is the visitor going to provide the device, or is the museum?

If the visitor provides:

No device with them (they visit your website and possibly download something in advance)
Stupid phone (they can do a cell phone tour)
Smart phone (they can download/play a podcast, use an app, or visit your website in mobile view)

If the museum provides:

No-tech (map, wall text)
Low-tech (provide a device with a pre-loaded audio/video tour)
Hi-tech (wi-fi hotspot for downloading apps, tours, using social media, etc)

The goal is to find the perfect match for your site, given all these factors.

Keep in mind that visitors will judge you on what you offer, not what you don't, and that they expect 100% accuracy. They won't fault you for not having an iPhone app, but if you provide one and it doesn't work, they'll be unhappy. They don't expect you to offer a wand or iTouch with a mobile tour loaded on it, but if you do, it has to work properly 100% of the time.

Now for some tech stuff, Titus' Manifesto for mobile platforms:

Content should not be required to be altered or created for a platform. That is, your assets (video, photos, etc.) should not have to be customized to fit a specific device, because the device will change.
Assembly of assets should be managed by a metadata layer. This metadata layer can easily change for a new platform.
Platforms should manipulate assets for optimized display automatically, filtered to ensure a good viewing experience. For example, a photo in your collections management system would be resized to fit an iPod screen if that's what the user is holding, without affecting the original in your system.
Store assets in the most appropriate way for the asset, not the end content. For example, keep the original photos as raw files or TIFFs, so you always have that high-quality image to go back to.
Be technically promiscuous to achieve the best solution for managing and presenting content. (Don't use only one technology, as that may not be the best solution for you.)

Make the most of what you already have in your collections management system; it's low-hanging fruit that can be turned into mobile content fairly easily.

Use as much off the shelf as you can (for 80% of the work) and then customize the remaining 20%. You want your customizing to show on the front end (to the visitor). Don't customize the back end, as it slows down your staff members who have to re-learn the interface. This is one example of why Wordpress might be a good platform for you, as many people are already using Wordpress for blogs and are familiar with the administrative panel and how it works.

If you are doing things in-house, document it. Don't assume people know how to do it. It's very easy to cut this step and you WILL regret it later. If you have a tech firm or consultants doing it for you, make sure that full documentation is part of their scope of work.

Two platforms he recommends are Drupal and Wordpress. They are both powerful, widely supported, and open source. If you're just getting started, start with Wordpress. You can migrate it later into something more powerful, like Drupal. There's been a full discussion of the relative merits of Drupal vs. Wordpress on the Museum Computer Network's listserv.

He then built a quick Wordpress site while we watched (in about 15 minutes), including the plug-in for the mobile view, which people could then see on their cell phones as he worked. The advantage to this is that you can get it up quickly, keep customizing, it works on any PDA, and it doesn't have to go through the iTunes store approval process like an app does.

This was a terrific two days and gave me some useful tools to think about incorporating technology and media into museum visitor experiences. My thanks to Titus for taking the time to do the video interview, and to Rich Cherry of the Balboa Park Online Collaborative and Paige Simpson of the Balboa Park Learning Institute for bringing such stellar speakers to San Diego.

Going Mobile: Interpretive Strategy and Planning with Nancy Proctor

2010-02-18T08:47:00.000-08:00

The Balboa Park Online Collaborative hosted a workshop on February 16 and 17, 2010 on mobile interpretive tools and strategy. Day One featured Nancy Proctor, head of New Media for the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Nancy manages the Museum Mobile project, a blog and wiki for collaborative work on mobile interpretation in museums. You can find an exceedingly detailed wiki page for this workshop here, including all of Nancy and Titus Bicknell's slides.

Nancy began by reminding us that it's not about the technology, a sentiment that Titus echoed the next day. The goal is to go from headphones to microphones, from a one-way broadcast to a two-way dialogue with visitors.

Why mobile? By 2020, it's estimated that most people's primary access to the Net will be via a mobile device, not a PC.

Her strategy:

Define your target audience
Look at your mission and key messages
Define your outcomes: what do you want visitors to know, feel, and do?
What platforms are they already using?

All of this should sound very familiar to anyone involved with interpretive planning, and I loved to see how she integrated best practices into the notion of mobile interpretation, incorporating possible mobile interpretive tools alongside ones that are already in place and already working. Nancy credits Kate Haley Goldman of ILI for her early ideas on this methodology.

Early in the day, we paired up and pulled out a significant object that we were instructed to bring from home. [Note: the "significant object" discussion exercise is one used by SmartHistory's Steven Zucker & Beth Harris when they do workshops with people on their dialogue technique.]

Without telling our partner about our object, we listed as many questions as we had about theirs. Then we asked, and answered, the questions. We grouped the questions into formal, functional, relational, and emotional categories, and discussed how this got us thinking about the objects. We used this warm-up for the question mapping exercise.

Nancy also introduced the notion of soundtrack vs. sound bite, which was an interesting way of looking at chunks of intepretive content. See the video below for her definition of each.

She introduced us to a useful tool called question mapping. We were sent out into Balboa Park after lunch and asked to find (or draw) a map of a museum space, then write down every question we had on that map, locating the questions on the map. Here is a portion of my map, done at the San Diego Museum of Art:

Some of my questions were:

RE: nude sculpture: Does she mind being naked?
Why is this room peach?
Why did he use turquoise in a winter painting?
Why all the dead birds?

Then we came back and created a very large matrix, which incorporated our questions as one of the columns. (See an example of a completed matrix on Slide 62 in her slide deck.) Other columns include: target audience, key messages, themes, location (in the museum), type of interp (soundtrack/soundbite/link), voice, feedback option, platform.

While this 11" X 17" sheet was a little unwieldy to work with on our laps, I found it to be useful in helping me think through possible themes, as well as getting creative with potential voices, links, and possible ways to get visitors involved.

One example I came up with is the theme of the use of color by artists. This theme could lead you throughout the museum via podcast, audio tour, iPhone app, labels, scavenger hunt, etc. Voices on audio tracks could include painters, curators, exhibit designers, color designers, and someone from the Pantone Color Institute, who forecast color trends each year.

Possible ways to get the audience involved might be "name that color," vote on your favorite color, colorize a digital painting, try another color in this painting, send a postcard of this painting, or (this doesn't exist) create your own custom color nail polish in the museum store.

Here's my interview with Nancy:

If you are interested in the potential of gaming in museums, including the game the Smithsonian American Art Museum hosted called Ghosts of a Chance, as well as a compilation of recent alternate reality games (ARGs), see this blog post. If you're interested in the potential of gaming in museums, read this article about Columbia College's work on constructive/collaborative gaming.

All in all, this was a terrific first day and gave me some useful tools to think about incorporating technology and media into museum visitor experiences. My thanks to Nancy for taking the time to do the video interview, and to Rich Cherry of the Balboa Park Online Collaborative and Paige Simpson of the Balboa Park Learning Institute for bringing such stellar speakers to San Diego.

Custom retail products enhance the visitor experience

2010-02-17T12:10:00.000-08:00

I had the opportunity to attend the Association of Partners for Public Lands conference when it was held in San Diego Feb 7-10, 2010. In the big exhibit hall, one vendor stood out. They went through the hassle of working with the teamsters to bring in this awesome Airstream trailer as the focal point for their booth.

The Airstream perfectly captures the spirit of adventure that their products showcase, custom artwork in the spirit of the WPA posters of the 1930s and early 1940s. They have also been painstakingly re-creating and restoring as many of the original WPA posters as they can locate (only about a tenth of the 35,000 designs have survived).

It also allowed them a space to bring potential customers in to sit and chat, a rarity at trade shows.

They can do custom artwork in the WPA style for historic sites, like this beautiful card for Saguaro National Monument. (They are primarily focusing on parks, but do contact them if you have a historic site and are interested in custom products in this style.)

This merchandise embodies the authenticity trend that's been so strong in the last few years. The card stock is high quality and the overall effect is beautiful.

Check out their website for more information.

Sunday's Signpost

2010-02-14T17:55:00.001-08:00

Are you as serious about offering a good experience as this parking garage is?

Comfort and the museum visitor experience, parts 3-6

2010-02-12T16:57:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the delay on this final post! Click here for part 1 of this post. And here for part 2.

As I've thought about this workshop, which grew out of a session that Steve Tokar and Beth Katz put together for WMA in Anchorage (2008), I was happy to participate. I think both the museum and the participants got a valuable experience out of the workshop, which allowed them to experience the host museum wearing a number of different visitor personas (hosted by the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego's Balboa Park).

While we can never truly know what it's like to have a physical or cognitive challenge that we ourselves aren't currently experiencing, going through the process of viewing a museum through that lens can be illuminating. Elaine Bentley at Chicago Children's Museum said it best: "We're all just a banana peel away from having a disability." And we all age, people can be with someone with a physical or cognitive challenge, or we can have a temporary disability.

The Experienceology 8-step process addresses comfort in Step 4, seeing it as a critical part of an overall great experience. Comfort sets the stage, allowing visitors to engage and absorb our content. And often, it's these very comfort items (not finding a bathroom, or needing a drink of water) that are easy to fix but often overlooked by museums. Universal design goes far beyond that, creating environments that work for everyone.

I look forward to seeing how Steve and Beth's process evolves, and thoroughly enjoyed working with them and Paul Gabriel, our "cognitive challenges" guru, Vivian Haga from MOPA, and Kenshi Westover, our outstanding videographer and editor. I have a couple of articles by Paul Gabriel available here for free download, if you want more on cognitive disabilities and the museum environment. Here's the video:

If you're interested in seeing my take on comfort, here's the link to my recorded class on Step 4.

I look forward to reading your comments on museum comfort! Where has it supported or hindered your museum experience?

Customer Service in Museums: online class

2009-12-10T12:09:00.000-08:00

Last year I wrote a book review on How to Talk to Customers. I'm thrilled to have hosted author Tom Larkin in the Experienceology virtual classroom on Tuesday 12/15/09 to answer customer service questions relating to museums. We covered hiring practices (including "hiring" volunteers), training tips, and specific issues sent in by the attendees, like dealing with difficult people and front desk issues.

The virtual classroom was limited to 50 seats, in order for everyone to get their questions answered and have a good experience. The class was $35 for individuals, and group rates are always available on a sliding scale.

Here's a sample from the class:

All live webinars are recorded and then made available on-demand as downloads for your convenience. Attendees get the recording for free. The downloads are priced at $10, an amazing value compared to traveling to a conference or paying for a local class. Here's the link to the download. We hope to see you in the virtual classroom soon!

Sunday's signpost

2009-12-06T10:01:00.001-08:00

Clever play on words at Caribou Coffee.

Comfort and the museum visitor experience, part 2

2009-12-04T16:15:00.000-08:00

Here's the second part of the series, featuring exhibit elements. For the background on this workshop, read this post.