Barriers to Participation: Logins and Intimidation
- By Jenny Parker
- February 25, 2008
In researching our latest paper, The Art of Storytelling, we learned how museums can help get visitors to participate. And, on the flipside, we also learned that museums can inadvertently create barriers that discourage participation.
These barriers take many forms, but perhaps the most obvious (and easiest to remove) is the login. Entry – whether to contribute or to allow other visitors to view the contribution of other participants – needs to be simple. When visitors find getting started even a little annoying, they will not be bothered. When a login is necessary – (logins help maintain accountability and reduce unwanted “junk”) – place them toward the end of the user experience, rather than up front. This way, visitors only login after they’ve invested the effort in participating.
Then there’s intimidation. The activity itself, especially the call to creativity, can seem daunting. In response to a poetry-writing activity at the Denver Art Museum, a participant noted, “When I think of poetry, I think I can’t possibly do that.”
Talking with us about this feedback, Lisa Steffen of the Denver Museum of Art, offered up some great suggestions for addressing intimidation: "Journal covers that say simply, ‘Let the art in this room inspire you’ invite the contemplation of the art first and foremost."
Some other suggestions? Start with an “icebreaker question” to help ease visitors into the idea that the creative process can be embraced by anyone, or introduce the activity by saying something along the lines of “although we are not all artists or poets, we’re all creative in some ways …”
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