Design factors in the museum visitor experience

i Declaration by author iii Publications during candidature iv Acknowledgements v List of Figures & Tables xi Figures xi Tables xiii List of Abbreviations used in the Thesis xv Glossary of Key Terms xvi Chapter One: Introduction 1 1.1 A Personal Narrative on the Origins of This Study 1 1.2 Museums: Their Social, Cultural and Economic Role 3 1.3 The Research Problem 4 1.4 Theoretical Framework 6 1.5 Research Aims and Approach 7 1.6 Significance of the Research 8 1.7 Structure of this Thesis 9 Chapter Two: Literature Review 10 PART ONE: Museum Exhibitions and the Visitor Experience 10 2.1 The Importance of Experiences 10 2.2 Exhibition Design: Importance and Research Challenges 11 2.3 Brief History of Museum Architecture and Exhibition Design 13 2.4 New Roles for Exhibitions: From Displays to Experiences 15 2.4.1 Experiences as Theatre – Exhibition Design as “Scenography” 17 2.5 Theories of Exhibition Space 19 2.5.1 Space Syntax 19 2.5.2 Isovist Theory – “Space Semantics” 21 2.5.3 The Exhibition as a “Text”: Semiotic and Linguistic Analysis 23 2.5.4 Semiotics Beyond Texts: The Multimodality of the Visitor Experience 25 2.6 Summary of Part One 29 PART TWO: Atmospherics and the Role of the Environment 30 2.7 Introduction to Atmospherics 30 2.8 Theoretical Frameworks for Atmospherics 33 2.8.1 Modelling Consumer Response as Stimulus-Organism-Response 33 2.8.2 Characterising Environmental Variables 34 2.8.3 Affect and Emotion in Consumer Responses 37