[Nhcoll-l] Visitor Attention as a Design Constraint in Digital Collections

[Thor Martin Jensen]

Dear colleagues,

There's a viral photo of visitors on their phones in the Louvre's Grande
Galerie that's sparked the usual "phones are ruining museums" discourse.
But I think it actually illustrates a fundamental design problem in how
we've approached digital interpretation.

After two decades building digital technology products, I've come to
believe we miscalculated the core problem. It was never about access to
information - it was about attention as a finite resource.

I've written about this tension and what it means for how we think about
visitor technology:
https://thormartinbaerug.com/2025/11/05/how-were-building-museum-technology-that-gets-out-of-the-way/

The argument centers on why audio-first approaches preserve visual
attention in ways that screen-based interpretation cannot, and why the
"technology that disappears" principle matters more than feature richness.

Would be interested in perspectives from colleagues working in collections
with diverse audiences and interpretation needs.

*Sincerely / Med Venlig Hilsen*


Thor Martin Baerug

https://walkietalk.ie/
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