PRM: Gypsies Revised

On Monday, Kristan met with me in the afternoon to discuss my first go at the labels for the touchscreen map. As it turns out, she had been envisioning something a little different for the labels. Instead of one large label describing one trip, she discussed maybe making a series of smaller labels describing specific stops along each trip. This would take advantage of the program's capabilities at creating layers of information that the visitors can choose to discover. After our talk, I had a much clearer vision of what I needed to do. I got to work immediately, choosing some specific spots where I knew fun and interesting things happened with the Gypsies.

I spent nuch of this morning editing the larger labels I had already drafted, adding details where necessary and eliminating tidbits where needed. I kept the conversational language I had already employed; Kristan encouraged me to keep that up as it was a way to keep visitors engaged.

I had also drafted up a few biographical labels on Monday that I subsequently sent to Kristan to take a look at. Even before hearing back from her today, I was not happy with the product I had turned out. I regressed back into my academic writing style, trying to wrap up each woman's life story in a nice, complete package. What visitor wants to read 20 of those?! Kristan agreed with that assessment; so, I will be starting largely anew with those tomorrow or on Monday.

I'm learning that there are many drafts to this process. Finding the right balance between information and brevity is incredibly difficult. But I will have a break from that tomorrow morning as I head to Washington, IL, to interview Ron Dupree, a man well-versed in Ford's Model T. His interview will be one of three "podcasts" that will be peppered throughout the exhibit for our visitors' listening pleasure. Mr. Dupree even hinted at a ride in an old Model T... I can hardly wait!