Guiding principles

What are the ingredients of a good audio guide? Henrietta Bredin investigates

These days you’re more than likely, at any museum, gallery, exhibition or public building of interest, to be offered an audio (or even a multimedia) guide with which to ‘enhance your visitor experience’. There will probably be a small cost involved and you will then find yourself with a pair of headphones and an attached box to sling around your neck — or something known in the trade as a wand, which looks like a large telephone with a selection of buttons to choose from.

Many people find these guides extremely useful but there will always be some (and I have frequently been among their number) who would rather find their own way around without being prompted by a small voice in their ear. That choice unfortunately puts you at risk of being overwhelmed by a shoal of guided goldfish who have just been instructed to move from exhibit no.