[Placeholder - this case study will be written up around a specific project. The structure below shows how it will read.]
Interpretation plans have a reputation for living in ring binders. This case study follows one that didn't: how a set of interpretive themes, developed with curators and community panels, was carried all the way through to the built exhibition - text, casework, digital and programming.
From themes to design brief
We start with the research: what the collection could say, what audiences told us they wanted to know, and how those two lists differed. The interpretation strategy resolved that tension into a small number of themes - each with a clear audience, a big idea, and objects that could carry it.
The crucial step was translating those themes into a brief the exhibition designers could act on: hierarchies of message, word counts that respect how people actually read in galleries, and hands-on and digital moments placed where evaluation said energy would flag.
Interpretation is a chain of decisions - and every link is a chance to lose the visitor or win them back.
Testing, iterating, opening
Prototyping changed the scheme in ways the plan alone never would have. Front-end and formative evaluation with target audiences reshaped label voice, reordered a gallery, and cut a favourite interactive that simply didn't work. The result opened on time, on budget - and is measurably used the way it was designed to be.
What travels to other projects
The closing section draws out the transferable lessons: write themes an audience member could repeat back to you, budget for testing from day one, and keep one interpretive voice in the room from strategy to snag list.
