Is there a best practice way of navigating museums and exhibits? Counter clockwise vs clockwise, start from the highest floor, etc.?

Answer 1

There isn't necessarily a best practice and often museums, like shopping centers, would try to encourage their patrons to spend as much time in the facility as possible, and therefore, directed routes are less frequent than meandering paths.

One interesting example to the contrary is Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Museum in New York. The prolific architect's intent was for the museum goer to take an elevator to the top level and follow the spiral ramp back down to view all of the exhibits. Today, everyone walks the opposite direction, ascending the ramp.