London Trip 2013
The Visitor Experience, Interpretation and Customer Service One of the most important elements of the visitor experience is to provide high quality interpretation (‘reveal the meaning and relationships’). Interpretation should enable visitors to understand what the most important attributes or themes are of, for example, a national park or an attraction and why they are important. Interpretation is also important for helping to educate the visitor about wider issues for example global warming or tourism impacts. Effective interpretation should also engage with the visitor as part of their experience. This exercise asks you to assess the quality of the interpretation at a given attraction, and decide if it is doing its job effectively.
Name of attraction:……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Principles of Good Interpretation 1. It must be relevant to the audience. 2. Rather than provide information, it should reveal meanings. 3. It should be informative, entertaining and enlightening. 4. Rather than instruction, it should provoke inspiration and learning. 5. It should present a whole theme or idea. 6. It must accommodate the diverse interpretation needs of different age groups. 7. It should have appropriate quantity and quality of information. 1. According to Ham (1992), a good interpretation display should only have one main theme, which can then be developed into five or less ideas or sub-‐headings. Pick one of the interpretation displays and count how many different ideas or subheadings can you identify. Take photos to record your observations.
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London Trip 2013 2. Identify any displays that are slightly dated, containing too much information in an ‘essay’ format that makes it hard and uninteresting to read. How would you change these displays to comply with the 3rd principle of interpretation? Again take photos to record your observations and make any notes here.
3. Listed below are some of the techniques by which interpretation can be made more interesting to any audience. See if you can find examples in the attractions you visit. Again take photos to record your observations. § Showing cause and effect § Link science to human history or everyday life situations § Use visual metaphors to describe complex ideas § Exaggerate size and time scales § Use analogies § Use of personification (giving human-‐like qualities to a creature or inanimate object) § Individualisation (creating a fictitious character that makes a generic story more personal) § Using technology including video and weblinks § Hands-‐on and experiential interpretation (i.e. by doing / play)
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London Trip 2013 4. In order to ensure that people can capture most of the information being interpreted, an exhibit must follow the ABC rule: it should be Attractive, Brief and Clear, and in terms of design it should follow very much the same guidelines that you were given to prepare PowerPoint presentations (font consistency, use of colours, etc.). Please pick one of the exhibits in this centre and benchmark it in terms of the characteristics of a good interpretation exhibit, using a1 to 5 scale where 1= very poor; 2= poor; 3= it would get about a 40; 4= now we’re talking and 5= very good. Again take photos to record your observations.
A-‐B-‐C CHARACTERISTICS
1
2
3
4
5
ATTRACTIVENESS Use of colour
Font type and size (readability)
Structure (consistent use of forms and angles)
Involves the audience into participating / doing something
Appeals to more than one sense (vision/hearing/touch/smell)
No more than 5 well-‐spaced paragraphs or main ideas
Contains no more than 200 to 250 words
Can be read in about 45 seconds
Emphasises the use of pictures instead of words
The title clearly identifies the topic/theme being interpreted
Contains no more than 5 secondary ideas
It contains a clear introduction and a conclusion
Each secondary idea is briefly interpreted
Is well organised (easy to follow, logical sequence)
BRIEFNESS
CLARITY
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London Trip 2013
The Visitor Experience and Customer Service Managing the quality of the visitor experience is an integral part of the service environment – central to this is high quality customer service. For the attractions you visit please look for examples of good customer service and how the attractions are enhancing the overall quality of the visitor experience. As a starting point think about the following: how is the attraction catering and meeting the needs of different visitor groups, what type of visitor information is available, are there clear help desks for visitors, is signage effective, are staff available and helpful? This is just a start – what other aspects of the visitor experience can you identify? Try and find evidence and examples during the course of the day – take notes and photos to record your observations. Finally, from the attractions you have visited today what do you think are the key areas/examples of best practice you have seen?
Posting Your Photos On your return please post your photos online at: http://linoit.com/users/VisitChichester/canvases/LondonTrip2013 and add some annotation which relates to the activities covered in this handbook. Instructions on how to use Linoit have been circulated via email.
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