There is an extensive body of work on personalization
within museums and galleries, much of it concerned with
the idea of adapting the selection or presentation of
information to a visitor’s interests or learning style. Much of
this is driven by a desire for automated adaptation, with the
system doing the work, possibly without being overtly
visible to the visitor. Framing the visit as a personalized gift,
however, suggests a quite different approach, considering
personalization as a social matter that may be achieved
between a giver and receiver.
In the field of conversation
analysis, ‘recipient design’ refers to the way in which a speaker’s talk is personally
crafted towards the recipient. This type of person-to-person design extends to written
communication in the case of Postcrossing, an online
system for sending physical postcards to random recipients.
Kelly and Gooch report that the personalization of postcards
to the recipient’s tastes and interests through the postcard’s
design and personal, handwritten messages are rewarding
for both the sender and recipient. In museums and
galleries, however, this type of personalization to an
intended recipient has only been considered in
passing, such as in the case of Bartindaleet al.’s study of a participatory
museum installation where they saw visitors writing personal messages to co-visitors and contributing them to
the installation that is then visible to the public. These studies suggest that personalization is an implicit feature of
social interaction and that considering the recipient when designing communications is perhaps a matter of course.