Many museums offer mobile apps to extend the brief descriptions of physical exhibits. However, these apps often reproduce on-site content, are not location-aware, or demand several user interactions to view the content. Therefore, we propose using visitors’ mobile devices to extend static information with time-oriented, situated information visualization. We present a design study using visualizations to guide visitors through an exhibition. In total, we performed two comparative studies: 1) with clickable mockups of three visualization concepts (Timeline, Bookshelf, and Timeflower), and based on these results, 2) with three functional prototypes of timeline visualization concepts (Stack-based, Section-based, and All-in-one) both in a lab and museum setting. Our main finding is, that museum visitors prefer familiar and linear visualization techniques. We reflect on our results and the process and define guidelines for future studies on visualization for casual users in museums.