Some ideas about display and information

When I read this it made me think about displays at the HM and other museums I have visited.

Everything is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder by David Weinberger, 2007, Times Books, Henry Holt and Company, LLC

Some ideas from the description of the Staples prototype test store where layout and display are tested:
* · product description placards that line shelves
o with 20/20 vision capable of reading from 1.5 feet away
o three bullets is fine, five is too many
* · “we learn by watching our customer’s eyeballs”
o customers move in ten and twelve feet inside from the entrance, stop and scan
o Staples doesn’t put much signage in the entranceway
o they put signs over the most popular destinations and subcategory signs under those signs
o they keep shelf height relatively low so customers can scan the entire store
* · in physical space, some things are nearer than others
* · physical objects can only be in one place at a time
* · physical space is shared
o signs at average height are not helpful if you are in a wheelchair
o signs at average height are too high for young children
* · human physical abilities are limited
o the amount of information is limited by the ability to see, information signs can’t be so detailed they obscure the product
* · organization of the store needs to orderly and neat
o things out of place, can’t bbe found
o the physical mapping of the store needs to reflect the organization of the information
o that organization needs to be simple
o a messy store is a failed store

Digital world
* · instead of atoms, made up of bits
* · don’t have to walk long aisles, in the digital world everything is just a few clicks away
* · instead of being the same way for everyone, it can instantly rearrange itself for each person and each person’s tasks
* · no space limitation, every item can be displayed in the digital world
* · items don’t need to be in just one place, they can be in as many categories as you wish to place it