Over the past years, the museum has come to appear as a new arena for communication and learning, where visitors actively can engage in the construction of meaning of exhibitions. In this article, I discuss how the concept of design directs our attention towards the creative, dynamic and social aspects of learning. When used in relation to exhibitions, design signifies both the organization of a setting, and the process where the learner, out of her own interest, makes choices and selections and thereby creates her own understanding of the content. I will use empirical data from an ongoing study as an example, where I examine both the semiotic resources for learning in an exhibition, and the visitors’ meaning making in the exhibition - their reading of the text.