The Six Principles of Interpretation
The six principles are still credited to Freeman Tilden's original work but reworked and refined by many others.
1.Capture and maintain attention
To begin to communicate our stories we need to catch a visitor's attention and hold it long enough for us to make a point.
Museum studies tell us[3]that the first 15 minutes of a visit is spent locating the thing that interests the visitor,then there is around a 30-minute period of intense interaction with the exhibit or subject area.What happens next is that the visitor begins to browse through the rest of the displays and exhibits on show.
If we take this research at face value,this doesn't actually give us much time at all to get our messages across to our visitors.The importance of this simple lesson can be demonstrated in Acropolis Museum in Athens.
If you have only 30 minutes to get your message home,each individual board has only seconds to catch and hold a visitor's attention.The clock is ticking.This isn't the way to tell an amazing fabulous legendary history of the Acropolis.
The title“Propylaia of the Acropolis”demands a technical knowledge of Greek,not intellectually accessible to an uninformed audience.There is an incredibly large amount of unrelenting text—in two languages,Greek and English.The authors have demanded a high level of commitment from their visitors to read this and the other panels within the museum.The text needs to be intellectually accessible to the reader,pitching the language to the level or ability of the audience and using words they can understand.
Visitors are on a leisure day out.They are not at school.A visitor's state of mind is characterized by being[4]:
●unfocused
●avoiding effort
●avoiding boredom
●sensation seeking—i.e.searching for something novel,eye-catching or surprising
This has been likened to window-shopping.It can be argued that this style or format of interpretation doesn't even begin to address the needs demanded by the visitor's state of mind—the window shopper.This can be seen as a wasted opportunity and a waste of money ultimately,because these signs are doing absolutely nothing in imparting a message to the visitor.
The second example shows an interpretation panel at Blaenavon Ironworks in South Wales.
It was here that Sidney Gilchrist Thomas discovered the method to create steel from high phosphate content iron ore.Not exactly the most gripping subject matter,but when the patent was sold,it did open the way for Germany to exploit its vast iron ore reserves and made Gilchrist Thomas a very rich man.This story is unique to Blaenavon Ironworks.
Again it is delivered in two languages—Welsh and English—in a“technical jargon-free”passage of text.The text does not exceed two hundred words broken into short passages to ease the threatening proposition of blocks of un-relentless text.Engaging headlines to capture attention are employed,a brief summary of the content of the panel is given and more details for those who wish.
It may not be perfect,but it's meeting the requirements of the first principal to capture and maintain attention to enable a message to be delivered.
But just grabbing attention and being able to hold it on its own doesn't necessarily mean you'll effectively communicate your message.Titles,words and illustrations need to word hard.Two more examples at Conwy Castle,in North Wales demonstrate an“academic”approach and a“visitor friendly”approach.
There is a rather dull,text heavy panel with tiny and largely forgettable images.The language is uninspiring,academic and full of technical jargon.And there is also a big relevant illustration of the subject matter,provocative attention-grabbing headline and non-academic language in the body of the text.The words of President George Bush and how he described the Gulf War were used,“shock and awe”,and related this to the 13th century English conquest of Wales,today's terms to describe past events.
The final example of Montgomery Castle shows what can be done when there aren't any appropriate illustrations.In this case a graphic has been created—a big eye-catching graphic to introduce the topic.Here the panel has been created to resemble a book cover.A lot of time and effort is spent on designing books to stand out on a bookseller's shelf,to get a prospective reader to buy it.This knowledge should be used to make panels leap out and urge them to be read.
What these examples show is the importance in trying to meet the expectations in terms of design standards today's visitors expect.If we return to the example of the Acropolis Museum there is little for visitors to relate to,to think this is for me.Where do you encounter designs like that in everyday life,except in a museum,a heritage attraction or an academic publication?Certainly not in magazines,on advertisements or anything else our audience is used to seeing.Why would we expect our visitors to want to engage with it?
2.Interpretation is not just about facts
if your design has grabbed the visitor's attention,you have created the opportunity to hold attention and tell them the facts!You will all be relieved to hear that interpretation does contain facts!
Interpretation relies on accurate current knowledge and understanding gained from sound academic research.However,getting visitors to remember facts isn't the sole purpose of interpretation.Tilden said interpretation isn't about instruction,it's about provocation.What interpretation should do is give a wider and deeper meaning to those facts,to set those facts in context.You can place the factual information in the context of a person,for example,their experience.Take this statement for example:
“Imagine what it must have been like working close to the blast furnace in Blaenavon Ironworks,where the temperatures to melt iron ore were as hot as a volcano.”
A single sentence that asks you to think about working conditions,explains the heat in such a way that you can understand even if you haven't experienced volcanic heat first-hand.Do you want to work in a place like this?Can you relate to this?And it gives you a fact about the temperature needed to smelt iron ore.
Experts have a crucial role in interpretation because they are the experts.However,it doesn't necessarily always make them the best people to explain things to visitors.There are exceptions of course,most famously David Attenborough,and brilliant communicators can be found in all walks of life.But often,experts are so involved,so buried in the detail that often the visitor's needs are forgotten in the communications experts produce.
Recently,a very well-known journalist was interviewed on British TV discussing Brexit—where the UK has voted to leave the European Union—and the ongoing negotiations are complex in the extreme.The journalist said trying to explain this to the British public—his audience—was becoming increasingly frustrating.
The journalist said,“We're in too deep,we know the subject too well.”And he assumed,because journalists had been totally immersed in Brexit for two years,that the British public had attained this similar level of understanding.He went on to say,“we need to step back and explain Brexit clearly.”It was clear that this journalist,whose job is to communicate,recognised that their depth of knowledge was stifling their ability to explain things clearly.There was an assumption that he was communicating on the same level as his audience.And this is a lesson for us all.
A hard lesson for us all to learn is that visitors,whilst in the leisure mode I mentioned earlier:
●aren't open to detail,
●aren't receptive to a multitude of facts.
Psychologists recognise now that our brains can only absorb four facts or pieces of information at any one time.What does this tell us?Don't overload your visitors with detail—they can't remember it all;put the information in context and try to make it relate to the lives of your visitors.
3.Interpretation is engaging
Interpretation is about bringing an audience to an understanding and an appreciation of the stories we wish to deliver.We should engage with our visitors,make our interpretation relevant.
Sometimes this is expressed as making interpretation enjoyable.Many of our stories of industrial heritage aren't what you would call enjoyable;some people enjoy comparing their lives now with the worse options of the past:
●the human cost of industrial progress
●mining disasters
●poor working conditions
●poverty
●unemployment
●exploitation
These are all a very real part of this heritage.
Big Pit,the National Mining Museum showcases the story of coal mining in Wales.It curates the artefacts and interprets:
●the lives of the people who lived and worked in the pits,
●how coal was dug,
●who dug it,
●their families,
●the communities,
●the political struggles.(https://www.daowen.com)
It offers underground tours,where you are taken 100 metres below accompanied by a former mine worker.Visitors don a hard hat,with a lamp attached,descend the lift shaft in the cage as miners would have done.The experience is memorable,not least because the former miners who lead the tours have a wicked sense of humour and a depth of knowledge and experience of work underground that can't be matched.
Part of the experience involves talking about working conditions in the 19th century,where children as young as six were left alone on a 10-hour shift,in the dark,to open and close doors to allow coal trucks to pass.The lights are turned off.It's experiences like this that illustrate the horror of these conditions—especially if you are a parent—and engages the audience with the story.It's an engaging horrific experience but one with a very powerful meaning.The stories of people's lives continue above ground in the washrooms where the miners showered and changed after their shifts.
Set in the personal lockers where they kept their clothes,you are told about their lives before,during and after their working lives through text and audio.It's very profound—to get to know the hardships and often the extraordinary personal successes of these ordinary—unremarkable people.
The last exhibit is a wall that lists the hundreds of individual pits that once dug the coal that fueled the Industrial Revolution in Britain.As you leave the exhibition you are left with a sense of scale of the loss to the communities of South Wales as the pits were closed.
With the mines in Wales all but a memory,the population of ex-miners is aging.
The challenge for Big Pit is how to continue to deliver the experience beyond the natural lives of the former miners.One solution is for the museum to employ and train new tour guides,who serve an apprenticeship underground with the time-served colliers at Big Pit,so the stories are retained and passed on to the next generation.
A few miles away,the Rhondda Heritage Park offers another mining experience,again with ex-colliers leading tours around the mine.In places,character actors on television screens play the part of the guide.The video presentation is scripted so the live guide successfully“interacts”with the film guide.The Rhondda Heritage Park also offers an underground experience.Only this tour simulates the underground experience—walking through a reconstructed mine,and ending with a cinematic white-knuckle ride back to the surface—without actually ever going underground.
Two similar mining heritage experiences in terms of the story told,each offers different methods and depths of delivering an authentic engaging experience.
These first-person experiences at the mines are contemporary—led by real people who have lived their lives working underground.Go back further in time and the people aren't there anymore.Blists Hill is an open-air museum,one of ten operated by the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust.It recreates the sights,sounds and smell of a 19th/20th century community.
There's a town with shops,an industrial area and a countryside area.Actors dressed in period costume explain the lives and work of people at that time.These actors are not pretending to be(or acting the part of)the real people who lived and worked there in the 19th century.They explain what life was like in the past then in today's language.The scene is 19th century delivering the messages of 21st century.It's a very compelling and engaging experience.
With all these examples when you have a person talking,there's an element of spontaneity,serendipity,humour and pathos.The guides can adapt their message to the audience to make it relevant to their lives and experiences.Unlike a panel or a film show,a dialogue or a discussion around past events can be started,about the ways people lived then and the ways we live today.Think about that child underground working a 10-hour shift in the dark...
4.Interpretation is thematic
During a visit to Big Pit,I contemplated what it was that this place was trying to tell me.What was the take home message or the theme?
I went to Big Pit thinking I'm going to find out all about mining.I left with the thought that:
“Despite the awful working conditions below ground and the hardship endured by the wives and families above ground,the communities that lived around and served the pit were strong,cohesive and vibrant.”
But actually what I really remember are things that I could relate to:the things that caught my attention—the child opening and shutting the doors in the black pitch during a 10-hour shift,the lives of some of the miners,and the protest against pit closures in 1986.
So my take home message(or theme)—if I was asked—would be:despite the awful working conditions below ground and the hardship endured by the wives and families above ground,the communities that lived around and served the pits were strong,cohesive and vibrant.
I don't know if that was the purpose of the interpretation,but that was what it left me with.That for me was the theme or focus for the interpretation—that was my take home message.
Everything that is communicated to a visitor,from the very start of the visit,through whatever media you choose to use,should be focused around a theme.It gives a clear focus,clarity of thought,a mission even,which translates back to a clear message to your visitors.What is it you want people to take home with them?Visitors coming away with a muddled mixture of facts won't have been helped to understand or get any meaning from their visit,and certainly won't encourage or inspire them to do anything else,like:
●find out more,
●buy a book,
●recommend a friend to visit,
●or make a donation.
That's why a clear focus or theme is so necessary.
I can't really remember any factual information I encountered during my visit to Big Pit—apart from the alone child in the dark—but I did end up with an idea of a bigger picture.
5.Interpretation should be designed for its audience
We're all different.We all come with our own background,upbringing experiences and knowledge.Our visitors are no different,and apart from a shared interest perhaps in visiting industrial sites or historic places visitors will all exhibit different traits.
There's been a lot of research around segmentation of visitor groups and various classifications to describe them such as“active explorers”“empty nesters”and a whole raft of other categories that people are labelled;the idea being if you know what traits the category exhibits,the more able you are to satisfy those needs.
This is useful information for planning our interpretation,especially when thinking about who is visiting and when—for example,families visiting in school holidays or retired and older couples visiting outside school holidays(when there aren't any children to annoy them).
The visitor research we have undertaken in heritage sites in Wales shows us that it's the people who can afford to visit that are more likely to visit—the socalled demographic groups A,B,C's—the more educated,professionally employed,better paid members of society.Interestingly though,at Blaenavon Ironworks,the majority of visitors are from the demographic groups further down the list—the D's and E's—the working class and lower income groups of society.Maybe because it is more closely related to their life experiences in primary industries?It does leave us with a challenge in how we cater for a range of different groups.
Although I'm not aware of any research that has evaluated the effectiveness of audience specific interpretation,I think that interpretation provision needs to take heed of the knowledge gathered about our audiences and provide an experience suited to a range of needs.
The focused,engaging interpretation I've talked about should be coupled with a range of opportunities to engage with the story.Think back to Blists Hill where re-enactors—playing out different roles—engage with visitors face to face,or back to the two mining experiences when ex-colliers use the experience gained in a lifetime working underground,and then mix in opportunities to be actively involved—through interactive displays,handling collections,touchscreens,film shows,dressing up in period costume etc.—all of these opportunities,clearly thematically focused,enable you to please most of the people most of the time rather than a few people all of the time.
And you never know what your visitors are going to get up to.At Beaumaris Castle in North Wales,there was a drive to make the visit more appealing to a family market,but not at the expense of another market of older retired visitors.The interpretation was themed around castle construction techniques and interactive displays were created to interpret this.
It was interesting to note that on a wet midweek morning,when the only visitors were older retired couples,many of the visitors were immersed in the interactive displays created for families.Building wooden roof trusses,building the soft-play castle,playing the harp,making a stained glass window,etc.
This was an unexpected(in terms of the target audience for these exhibits)outcome(it was anticipated that the older visitors would engage with the panels,watch the film show and use the audio tour on their mobile phones).What the outcome did suggest was that it's the range of opportunity and the opportunity to engage that's important.Perhaps the older visitors had the opportunity to engage because the families weren't there?Play,after all is a universal theme.
High school students visit Blaenavon Ironworks hence one particular approach to telling the story of Sydney Gilchrist Thomas in graphic art form.This isn't anything new.Comic art isn't intimidating,it's accessible to many different audiences,and to audiences underserved by other forms of communication.
The motivation to use this art form was inspired by Hope beyond Hype[5]—where the art form has been used by University of Edinburgh to inform people about stem cell research.Some studies of comics appear to show significantly to improved understanding of medical conditions,but this may be due to the readers being more able to relate to the content.[6]
Ever wondered how a Roman soldier went to the toilet?There are parts of a visit where you have a captive audience.
The queue for the tickets,the restaurant,the toilets,places where people wait outside toilets.All these spaces can be exploited and use them to reinforce your messages.What could be more universal than talking about what people ate,and where people relieved themselves of the food they have eaten?These areas outside of the formal exhibition are crucial to the success of interpretation.Away from interpretation these areas perform a crucial part in the success of any interpretation.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Theory[7]applied to a visitor attraction simply means that if visitors deficiency needs aren't met—they don't feel welcome,have trouble finding the toilets,are not sure where they can have something to eat or drink,don't know where to go when they arrive—then it makes it harder for visitors to move to a place where they can appreciate the story,learn something new,have a great experience.Whilst these spaces provide great opportunities for interpretation,a cold,boring,unimaginative queuing experience may create the wrong sort of memorable experience you seek to provide.
6.Interpretation should be unique
We can all agree that every place has a history of its own and its own place in history.So we need to choose carefully what part of history we can best tell.Think of it like a 1 000-piece jigsaw.Together 1 000 pieces make a picture,but individually each piece is unique in shape,colour and size.
I've already spoken about the capacity of our audiences to grasp the facts,and why a single focused thematic approach is required to communicate the significance of your place.Planning interpretation well will help you succeed in communicating your story to your audience.You will know where your piece of the jigsaw fits,know what other places are doing and plan to complement rather than duplicate.
●You will be able to set clear objectives—what it is you want to achieve—and be able to measure your success
●You will have researched your audiences—know who they are(or are not)so you can address them specifically
●You will be able to organise your interpretation—where people can go,what they can see
●You will have created a clear theme for your interpretation
●And you'll have an idea of the most appropriate way to tell your story
Wales has adopted a unique approach where interpretation planning has been undertaken on a national scale[8],where the pieces of the jigsaw have been identified,where they sit in the completed picture,and what each piece looks like—their unique story.This was the challenge for Wales as a nation—to present complex stories and sites to audiences that know very little about the place or its history.To this end a series of national plans were prepared which are intended to act as an umbrella under which individual sites and stories can sit and to allow each place to tell its own story in the broader context of an over-arching narrative.[9]
This was completed to help avoid the duplication of stories,and enable places to work together to create regional narratives,for groups of heritage attractions to market themselves together,to make a better,more focused and compelling proposal for visitors.