Standing visitors will not read long or all-caps interpretive text

Evidence

Interpretive signs, museum labels, and the like will be usually read by standing people. There are exceptions, such as when a drive-off permits people to remain in an automobile and read. People are not conditioned, save perhaps for straphanging commuters, to much reading while standing. I found in Blue Ridge Partway, at the entrance to a self-guiding trail, a large glass-covered case that contained, in hand-lettered capital letters, several hundred words of the best writing I had seen in a long time. It was salty, neatly turned, with the homeliness of the mountains and mountain people. It delighted me. But I observed that visitors merely gave it a glance and turned away. It was too long, and it was in capital letters. Except for headlines, readers are not conditioned to “caps.” They read them under eye protest. — Freeman Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage, 408

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Brevity defeats itself when it omits needed explanation or substance — Freeman Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage, 410; Unserviceable interpretive technology harms visitors more than its absence does — Freeman Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage, 571; Interpretive presentations fail through excess, not just deficiency of content — Freeman Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage, 485 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Interpretive presentations fail through excess, not just deficiency of content #complicates (0.78) — Freeman Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage, 485
• Informational overload prevents viewers from ever mastering a videotext’s meaning #expands (0.78)
• Illustrated manuscripts forced readers to choose between text and image #expands (0.75)
• Unserviceable interpretive technology harms visitors more than its absence does #corroborates (0.72) — Freeman Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage, 571