The Exhibition That Was Designed to Make You Move Differently

A good exhibition does not just put objects in a room and hope people walk past them in the correct order.

The best ones quietly control your pace. A narrow entrance slows you down. A low object makes you lean in. A gap makes you choose which side to use. A sudden open space gives you somewhere to stop.

Current exhibition coverage from Designboom and ArchPaper keeps returning to this idea: the room is part of the work, not just the container. Designboom's October exhibition radar is a useful starting point for seeing how artists and designers shape movement.

Design the body, not just the wall

If you are making a market display, stall, pop-up or shop window, imagine the visitor's feet before you choose the decorations.

Where do they enter? What do they see first? Is there room to stop without blocking everybody else? Can they get close enough to touch or read the important thing?

The simplest test is a piece of tape

Tape the outline of your display on the floor. Walk through it carrying a bag. Turn around. Stand still for ten seconds. Notice what your body does.

It is a very cheap way to discover that the thing which looked spacious in a sketch is actually a small obstacle course.

Try this: draw the customer's walking path before drawing the display graphics.