Information Overload: How Much is too Much?
Claire Bown
Author of The Art Engager: Reimagining Guided Experiences in Museums | Museum Educator, Facilitator, Coach and Speaker | The Art Engager podcast | Thinking Museum? Approach | Slow looking |
How much information is too much on a guided tour? When does information become a burden and how much do we actually remember afterwards?
Traditional lecture-style ‘walk and talk ‘ guided tours with an expert guide are still all-to-common and a standard way of ‘presenting’ a historic site, a city or a museum to the public.
However, participants on these style of tours will remember very little of the information they are told, less than 5% in fact. They will become exhausted (and sometimes irritated) by the non-stop flow of information. They will leave their tour none the richer or wiser for the time they’ve spent with their guide.
The fact that you, as a guide or educator, might have spent months or even years learning this information isn’t a good enough reason to empty the contents of your head onto a group of unsuspecting visitors.
We need to think about using information productively and strategically.
As I said in ‘Teaching Skills on Tour: Learning to Look‘, I feel that we place too much emphasis on the delivery of content, information or knowledge on tour. Many organisations (including museums) are now working hard at training their guides to introduce more interactive, inquiry-led strategies on tour that involve the participants in conversation and discussion, which is great.
But what I’ve found is that they are not explicitly teaching guides how to confidently use their knowledge in a productive and strategic way – reducing the amount of information and knowing how to add it in small amounts or in response to a question.
Make tours better for customers by making them better for guides.
5 年One of my early mentors taught me that you should only give a quarter of the info you have in your back pocket.? That way, if they keep asking questions, you'll look like you know everything because you keep having more to talk about. If you give everything away on a tour (besides the fact that it would probably not be an enjoyable tour), then you will have nothing left for those who will ALWAYS ask questions, no matter how much detail you give.