(While still satisfying scholars)
If you’ve worked in museums or parks for more than ten minutes, you’ve probably come across what we might call “scholar text.” You know the stuff: interpretation written by historians for historians, or by biologists for other biologists. It’s the book-on-a-wall approach. The dissertation-on-a-stick beside a forest trail: full of jargon. Dense as pudding. Academic reading level, with a matching attention span requirement.
And here’s the thing: it’s not… wrong. It’s just not for most of your visitors.
Back in the day, museologist George F. MacDonald came up with a tidy little framework that’s still useful today: the Streaker–Stroller–Scholar model.
- Streakers zip through an exhibit, catching impressions and maybe a title or two.
- Strollers slow down and dabble—if something grabs them, they’ll pause.
- Scholars dig in and go deep. They’re the ones who might actually read your entire text panel… if you’re lucky.
And here’s the kicker: most exhibit content is written for scholars, even though most visitors are streakers or strollers.
So what if we flipped that?
What if we wrote in a hierarchy—not dumbing things down, but layering meaning so that everyone walks away with something?
And what if we devoted most of our energy to the actual audiences who walk through our doors or hike our trails?
That doesn’t just require good writing. It requires a bit of humility, and a bit of social science. An hour of quietly watching people interact with your signage can be transformative. You’ll see just how many people don’t read at all. Or skim. Or get halfway through the first sentence before their eyes dart to the next shiny thing.
So what do we do?
1. Design visually
If a visitor only looks at one thing, what should it be?
A single, beautiful, meaningful image—illustration, photo, or data visual—can do a ton of heavy lifting. If the image tells the story on its own, you’re halfway there.
2. Hook them with a headline
A catchy, emotionally resonant title can do more than just label. It should invite. Think about curiosity, mystery, delight, or surprise.
Follow it up with a bolded summary statement—what UK planners call the “core message.” If that’s all they read, they still walk away with the key idea.
3. Break up the chunks
Break your text into bite-sized pieces, each headed by a short, pithy phrase. This creates visual structure and helps the stroller (and even the streaker) decide what’s worth stopping for.
4. Save room for the scholars—if they exist
If you know you have a scholar audience—and only if—give them some meat and potatoes at the bottom. But even then, don’t lapse into academic auto-pilot. Good writing is good writing. Scholars appreciate clarity too.
In the end, it’s about generosity
Writing for the real visitor—who may be tired, distracted, disinterested, or just along for the ride—is an act of generosity. It takes more thought and care to reach them. But when you do, that’s when the magic happens.
Hey does this kind of writing tickle your brain? Sign up for monthly goodness from donenright.com.
Wanna see what past newsletters look like? Clickity click.
Leave a Reply