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

[Thor Martin Jensen]

Thank you - I'll see if I can find it. I found an old NPR interview with
Carr about the book that's making me rethink the entire framing.

What strikes me is Carr's point that solitary, prolonged concentration is
"an aberration in the great sweep of intellectual history" - it only
emerged with printed books. Museums are asking for that same aberration:
sustained, focused attention on objects.

But we're building technology that returns visitors to what Carr calls our
"natural state of distractedness." Apps that interrupt. Screens that
fragment. Interfaces optimized for skimming.

The challenge should never be to make museums more digital. It's preserving
and supporting (including with digital tools) that "aberration" of deep
attention that makes museum encounters meaningful.

Appreciate the recommendation.

*Sincerely / Med Venlig Hilsen*


Thor Martin Baerug

https://walkietalk.ie/


On Thu, Nov 6, 2025 at 2:39 PM Callomon,Paul <prc44 at drexel.edu> wrote:

> I recommend reading “The Shallows: How the Internet is changing the way we
> read, think and remember” by Nicholas Carr.
>
>
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shallows_(book)
>
>
>
> *Paul Callomon*
> *Collection Manager, Malacology and General Invertebrates*
> ------------------------------
>
> *Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia*
> *callomon at ansp.org <callomon at ansp.org> Tel 215-405-5096 - Fax 215-299-1170*
>
> *President of the American Malacological Society for 2027*
>
>
>
> *From:* Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> *On Behalf Of *Thor
> Martin Jensen
> *Sent:* Thursday, November 6, 2025 8:36 AM
> *To:* nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
> *Subject:* [Nhcoll-l] Visitor Attention as a Design Constraint in Digital
> Collections
>
>
>
> *External.*
>
> 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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