ABSTRACT

Designing exhibits that catch and hold people’s interest – particularly easily distracted children – is a key challenge for science centres. Here we apply situational interest (SI), a model from educational psychology and STEM education, to understand characteristics exhibit designers use to trigger and/or maintain interest, evoke emotions and foster relevance. Australian designers were surveyed (n = 18) and interviewed (n = 5). Analysis showed although designers did not consciously apply SI, they consistently used fundamental aspects of the model, such as selecting distinct design characteristics to trigger interest, others to maintain it, and considering how characteristics affected emotions and relevance. This demonstrates SI is applicable to exhibit design. To trigger interest, designers highlighted characteristics including accessibility, hands-on experience, user-centredness, and sensory stimulation, and to maintain interest open-endedness. Social interaction – especially having multiple simultaneous exhibit users – was the only design characteristic identified as key for both triggering and maintaining interest. Designers associated specific emotions with triggering and/or maintaining interest, including negative or bi-valanced emotions. Characteristics to increase relevance included familiar objects, prior experience/prior knowledge, novelty and familiarity and social and cultural context. This study fuses psychological theory on interest with the lived-experience of exhibit designers, providing insights useful for designers, interpretive staff and researchers.

摘要

设计能够吸引并吸引人们（尤其是容易分心的儿童）兴趣的展品是科学中心面临的一项关键挑战。在这里，我们应用情境兴趣 (SI)，一种来自教育心理学和 STEM 教育的模型，来了解设计师用来触发和/或保持兴趣、唤起情绪和促进相关性的特征展示。澳大利亚设计师接受了调查（n = 18）和采访（n = 5）。分析表明，尽管设计师没有有意识地应用 SI，但他们始终如一地使用模型的基本方面，例如选择不同的设计特征来引发兴趣，其他人来维持兴趣，以及考虑特征如何影响情绪和相关性。这表明SI适用于展览设计。为了激发兴趣，设计师强调了特征，包括可访问性、动手体验、以用户为中心和感官刺激，并保持兴趣的开放性。社交互动——尤其是同时拥有多个展览用户——是唯一被确定为触发和保持兴趣的关键的设计特征。设计师将特定情绪与引发和/或维持兴趣相关联，包括负面或双价情绪。增加相关性的特征包括熟悉的物体、先前的经验/先前的知识、新颖性和熟悉性以及社会和文化背景. 本研究将兴趣心理学理论与展览设计师的生活经验相融合，为设计师、解说人员和研究人员提供有用的见解。