The Complementary Role of Interpretive Labels
The structural limits of attention prevent visitors from simultaneously attending to both label and objects.
When given a choice, visitors look at objects rather than read labels. Since the focus of visitor attention is primarily on three-dimensional visual experiences,this is where interpretation should start.
Rarely do visitors start their viewing experience by reading text.
In study after study, two-dimensional graphic panels not associated with some three dimensional
objects receive very little attention.
(This is one reason why it is difficult to get visitors
to read introductory labels.) Label reading cannot