Ekarv text method in practice

With more than 200,000 visitors annually, the Royal Naval Museum in Portsmouth provides the most prominent example in the UK of the use of the Ekarv method for writing display text. Maurice Davies visited its three new permanent galleries in which the text for all the main interpretive panels - and some computer-based interactives - follows Margareta Ekarv's principles As part of the preparation of the new galleries, curatorial staff learned the Ekarv method for easy-to-read text and then put it into practice. Education officer Rebekka Moran introduced them to the method, soon after her appointment in April 1998 as the museum's first education specialist (funded by the Nuffield Foundation as part of the Royal Naval Museum's (RNM's) redevelopment). Moran began by inviting museum staff and the outside designers, Robin Wade and Partners, to a seminar on display text. She presented the Ekarv principals of writing readable texts, including: simple language, short sentences, one main idea per line of text, and laying out text so that lines coincide with the natural phrasing of the text. The designers brought with them some mock-up panels to show what the finished display text might look like.

The seminar was an opportunity to examine the function of display panels by exploring related factors such as visitor learning styles and the role of panels in relation to other interpretive media such as books and other more detailed texts. Moran also supplied curators with a written guide to the Ekarv method.

Approach

At the RNM, the introductory panels are part of a layered system of interpretation that includes more detailed labels for display cases and individual objects. Generally, the more detailed texts do not follow Ekarv principles (although they do use fairly straight-forward language). They also take account of the fact that many of the museum's visitors are not regular museum users; rather they visit the museum as part of a day at Portsmouth historic dockyard (80 per cent of RNM's visitors are holders of a Dockyard wide admission ticket). Moran believes strongly that the museum must do all it can to make these irregular visitors feel comfortable. Making interpretive texts easily accessible is a key part of this. Moran also points out that the Historic Dockyard, as a whole is full of information and interpretation: there are audio guides, guidebooks and interpretive panels galore. It is simply unrealistic to expect visitors to the museum to have enough energy left to wade through huge quantities of dense text. That is not to say that there is a paucity of interpretation in the galleries - there is generally more than before the redisplay. Visitors can also get more information easily from books - and experts' can make an appointment to use the museum's research facilities.