Interpretation & development
‘You must visit!’ - Creating rewarding visitor experiences.
‘You must visit!’…it’s the feedback we all want to hear….people urging their friends and family to visit a place that they have experienced and loved. It means that for that person your efforts have worked, they loved it and they want others to know about it.
So how do we ensure this happens continuously and ensure our heritage organisations are sustainable going forward?
Creating a successful experience for both organisations and visitors
-
Figuring out the perfect mix of ‘ingredients’ to ensure success is what my role as an interpreter is all about.
-
I take a holistic approach to ensuring a site is both meeting the needs of its visitors.
-
Whilst promoting the value of its resource (be that a museum collection or place), with the realities of the supporting organisations’ objectives and operations.
Knowledgable & experienced
Interpretation in practice...Three things underpin my planning process when I undertake a new project, of whatever size:
1. The Visitor – who are they and what motivates them to come? The more you can understand about them – their social, physical and intellectual ‘context’ – the more you can create ‘pathways’ for them to access the messages you as the organisation are putting out about the significance of your site or collection.
2. The Resource – what is it that is so significant about the heritage resource? Why is it valued? Why might people be interested in it? What is unique about it and how does it link to universal concepts that visitors might relate to?
3. The Realities – understanding the objectives and realities of the organisation. What are the ‘mechanics’ of the organisation – staffing/budgets/physical space/ sustainability? What is the basis of the organisation – its culture and philosophy, and how can the interpretation compliment that?
Once I have answered all those questions, the solution, or rather the interpretive tools that will enhance the experience for visitors, will become clear.
It is then a case of implementing a plan to ensure all the deliverables – be they audio tour, interpretation panel, guided tour, exhibition etc. – are completed on time and to budget. This involves project management skills familiar across many industries. It might also involve writing briefs, commissioning artists or sourcing equipment, and working with other practitioners to create a high quality result.
CREATING A DIGITAL TOUR FOR VISITORS
The Japanese Garden, Cowden.
The benefit for the Garden was that not only could people access the tour in the Garden itself where it would explain key historical and cultural points as they walked around it,
It would also raise awareness of the Garden amongst tourists and help build a sustainable visitor base for this new attraction. The project involved historical research into the garden and Japanese cultural significance, script writing, recruiting and recording with volunteers from the garden, and close liaison with the GeoTourist team to ensure the audio and images were App compatible.
The process - creating an audio tour
Between 2020-21 I was asked to create an audio tour of the site with which visitors could tour the garden or listen to off site. To create the tour, I worked in partnership with GeoTourist, an online app which provides site and city tours for people to access directly through their mobile phone.
-
To create the tour, I worked in partnership with GeoTourist, an online app which provides site and city tours for people to access directly through their mobile phone. The benefit for the Garden was that not only could people access the tour in the Garden itself where it would explain key historical and cultural points as they walked around it, but it would also raise awareness of the Garden amongst tourists and help build a sustainable visitor base for this new attraction. The project involved historical research into the garden and Japanese cultural significance, script writing, recruiting and recording with volunteers from the garden, and close liaison with the GeoTourist team to ensure the audio and images were App compatible.
The outcomes
The audio tour was launched in September 2020 and has had over 2000 views so far. It is available to be used in both the garden itself but also by anyone around the world, helping to promote the garden and develop new audiences. Feedback from visitors will be sought during the 2021 season.
I am now developing interpretation panels to be incorporated in a new building in the garden, and these hope to be installed by the time the garden opens its doors in 2021.
“The chief aim of Interpretation is not instruction, but provocation. An educational activity which aims to reveal meanings and relationships through the use of original objects, by firsthand experience, and by illustrative media, rather than simply to communicate factual information.”
Freeman Tilden - 1955