Poster – Productive struggle: Measuring and designing for meaningful challenge

This poster, which was presented at the Visitor Studies Association Conference in 2017, shares methods, working definitions and frameworks, and lessons-learned from Developing Guidelines for Designing Challenging and Rewarding Interactive Science Exhibits (DRL-1612577). Through design-based research, this project is investigating the emotional state of “productive struggle,” an intensive, fruitful state of exhilaration and challenge characterized by high levels of physiological arousal along with the experience of negative emotions. The project pushes beyond the positive range of emotional experience to explore negative emotions of struggle and the learning opportunities associated with them. The poster prompts considerations for studying and designing for emotion in museums. After briefly introducing the project, it shares the suite of methods used for this project—ranging from traditional interviews and validated questionnaires to electrodermal activity sensors and eye tracking devices. Next, the poster shares the project’s working frameworks, which are being refined through the design-based research process. This includes a map of emotional engagement, operationalization of the productive struggle concept, and connections between the emotional state and exhibit design features. Finally, the poster shares lessons-learned about exploring this new content area.