GUIDELINES FOR THE CURATION OF GEOLOGICAL MATERIALS

3.1.3. The visitors
3.1.4. Description
3.1.5. Budget
(including climate, temperature, and smells) of this area (specified) in, say,
Upper Carboniferous times.
The predicted behaviour of visitors can be active (b) or passive (a). Exhibits
can have several objectives, but obviously these must be compatible (as examples
(c) and (d)); it would clearly be difficult or impossible to fulfil objectives (c) and
(e) together.
Your objectives contain an implicit hint of your intended target audience. It is,
however, valuable to describe them more formally. When planning a major
exhibit you may benefit by a visitors' survey, which may help in pitching the
appropriate level of information (see for example Alt, 1980).
Relevant visitor characteristics to be considered are:
Age and concept comprehension: adults, children at different levels.
Age and reading comprehension (see for example Sorsby & Horne 1980).
Previous knowledge of geology, or of the subject of the exhibition.
Physical characteristics: height of labels, line of vision etc. important for the
children in target audience and for the benefit of people with various
disabilities (see Keen 1984).
Numbers - single visitors, families or larger groups.
Also bear in mind the special needs of certain people; visitors from outside
your local area, the elderly, families with prams, pregnant women, the blind, the
deaf, etc., and provide seating and places where those wishing to sketch can lean
their paper.
The way in which you plan to fulfil your objectives in the exhibition should be
described very briefly. This section records how you envisage its general
appearance. You should consider and decide upon:
The scale and duration of the exhibit
The relative importance of specimens compared with two-dimensional
material
The use of graphics
The amount and level of text
The use and suitability of photographs
The story sequence (if any) in relation to visitor flow.
The need for a supporting publication expanding on the exhibit, which
should also be of value in its own right.
If yours is a museum with in-house designers, or if you are employing outside
designers, this is your opportunity to explain the subject of the exhibit in prose to
professional 'surrogate visitors'.
At the synopsis stage you should estimate costs (you may need professional help
with major projects). It is beyond the scope of these Guidelines to detail costing