When people find out that I live in Germany, am not fluent in German, but develop and conduct visitor studies for German museums, a common question is: How? How do I understand why visitors are coming, what they’re doing, how they’re engaging, and what they want when I don’t always understand what visitors are saying? A difference…
The Monterey Bay Aquarium does some of the most elegant and evocative labels I’ve ever seen. Here are some of the ones that captured my imagination recently.
Be sure to read Part 1 and Part 2. Note: While I’ve divided these steps into sections, when you’re developing new language resources chances are that many of the tasks from Part 2 will happen concurrently with the ones in Part 3. Part 3: When It’s Time For Layout and Design (1) Use a Standard Order When labels will…
Last year I wrote about how impressed I was with the interpretive moments sprinkled throughout Icelandair’s planes. When I traveled with them this month my admiration kept growing. These guys are good. Their little language and cultural stories are consistently interesting, quirky, and beautifully phrased, while still being short and snazzy. The world needs more interpretive signage…
Find Part 1 here. Part 2: When You’re Ready to Write (1) Identify Language Form(s) Once you’ve established your target languages and begun connecting with those communities, you need to identify the appropriate language forms. No language is neutral or only has one pan-global form. So will it be British or American English? High German or…
Since moving to Germany, I’ve developed a keenly-tuned English-language radar. No snippet - spoken or written - is too small to escape my notice, and I delight when I find them. Along with hunting for moments of my mother tongue, I’m helping create them. I’m involved in several projects exploring different ways to incorporate English…
While visiting the Húsavik Whale Museum (which I loved, and which every person I met in Iceland also loved because it’s awesome), I came across this label gem. Knowledge of the reproductive behaviour of cetaceans in their natural environment is limited. It is know, however, that whales are intensely sexual animals, using sex not…
A two-week trip to Iceland filled me with love for the land of volcanoes, icebergs, elves, and chocolate-covered licorice. It also filled me with ideas. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing a mini Iceland-Inspiration series of clever ideas, interesting exhibits, and approaches to ponder. Enjoy! Let’s start at the very beginning, shall we?…
I’ve been spending many hours working in the paleontology exhibit of my local museum this week. Possibly too many. Today I kept substituting the German name for The Big Bang - Urknall - for the English name of everyone’s favorite highwater-pants sporting nerd. On the first day, Urkel created the universe.
…that babe, of course, being Colin Firth. From his appearance on Inside the Actors’ Studio: Anyone who has tried to speak another language will find, if you’re limited in that language, will find that you end up saying what you can rather than what you really want to say. And you start to circumnavigate the…
Museums Askew 