8-Bit Theater
By: Asad Sheikh
Tags: Human Comuter Interaction, User Research, Generative Research, Prototyping

User-Centered Research and Evaluation, Fall 2020

Team Members:

Jane Lee, Project Manager

Asad Sheikh, Lead Researcher

Ije Okafor, Co-Designer

Ugochi Osita-Ogbonnaya, Co-Designer

David Domalik, Meeting Facilitator and Researcher

Summary

The current pandemic has led to widespread theater shut downs, causing theaters to look for ways to increase theater involvement by using online, pandemic-compliant measures. Our team sought to find ways to improve interaction between performers and the audience in both a virtual and hybrid landscape. We used Gather.town, a 2D digital space, to enact a theater experience where participants interact with live actors.

Problem

With the state of the coronavirus pandemic, the Kelly Strayhorn Theater was forced to move all programming online into a new experience that is characteristic of the working and academic environment today — over Zoom. While they had been able to livestream shows and even put out recordings of past shows for viewers to enjoy, they struggled with audience engagement. Typically, the theater experience at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater was full of laughter, smiles, and conversation as the audience and actors would gather after a performance in the theater’s lobby for dancing and drinks.

Our team sought to ameliorate the audience-actor relationship in both a virtual and hybrid format.

Methods + Insights

Our team first began with domain research on the current state of interactive theater in the industry to inspire generative research.

We first explored other theaters that were operating the interactive theater space to determine how successful they were in engaging users. The first instance we took a look at was Quantum Theatre, a Pittsburgh-based theater that was offering an interactive audio experience entitled “Ok, Odysseus” as well as a live streamed show entitled “Wild.”

Map of the “Ok, Odysseus” experience

We recruited participants and had them complete a think aloud protocol in which they navigated through the interactive audio experience and completed various tasks. From this, we gathered a couple of usability findings regarding interactive theater:

Audience members only cared about interaction if it was meaningful .

. Audience members appreciated novel ways to observe theater in a digital format. Rather than being spectators to an audience-facing show, they really enjoyed being able to experience the show as a fly on the wall.

After our initial think alouds, we then used the insights from audience interaction on the Quantum Theatre website to further test audience response to interactive theater in a virtual context. Our next research method was a contextual method we dubbed as a watch-along, where we showed participants the Netflix interactive film Black Mirror: Bandersnatch to first gauge their knowledge of interactive film experiences and capture their reactions to the movie itself.

An example of one of the many audience choices in Black Mirror: Bandersnatch

After collecting notes from our respective interviews, our team got together to create an affinity diagram highlighting the contextual insights from the watch-along. We first compiled all of the notes as we recapped each interview to the rest of the team with a designated note taker and conversation moderator. After we compiled our notes, we then used a collaborative whiteboarding tool to organize our notes into buckets.

Some of the results of our affinity diagramming

From our affinity diagramming, we garnered a couple more insights:

When the audience is asked to participate in a show, they become immersed and expect their interactions to have a significant impact on the plot or on the characters’ environment.

Participants from the audience prefer the freedom to make their own decisions when interacting and not just choose from a limited set of options. Theaters should provide a level of interactivity that allows for enough freedom of choice without restraint.

For online theater to be successful, it should focus on utilizing the unique interactive tools available to digital platforms and not attempt to simply recreate the in-person theater experience. Theaters should use these tools to capture the essence of the in-person experience while creating a new experience online.

After completing our affinity diagram, our team began to ideate and then conduct speed dating sessions was to learn more about how participants felt about specific ideas relating to interactive theater as well as other audience engagement initiatives.

We held a Crazy 8’s session to brainstorm storyboard ideas. Specifically, we each came up with eight different ideas that we could use to develop our storyboard scenarios. We then had each team member vote on which specific ideas we should prioritize as we created our storyboards.

Brainstorming storyboard ideas via Crazy 8s

After completing our Crazy 8’s assignment, we identified common themes in our ideas and concluded the following needs for users:

More dynamic and meaningful interactions on social media. The ability to control the outcome of a show by voting. A way to request which productions they’d like to see at a theater. The ability to interact with theater on a more technological level. The ability to engage and interact with the actors of a show.

Each team member then developed 3 storyboards relating to a specific user need. Within each need, the 3 storyboards also differed in terms of risk, from low-risk to high-risk ideas. Using the Speed Dating method, we gathered users’ reactions to ideas by presenting them a shuffled list of storyboards one at a time and getting their feedback on each presented idea.

An example storyboard detailing audience-actor interaction

We found that there were many common misunderstandings:

Participants preferred a traditional home movie experience over recreation of a live theater experience at home.

Some participants also felt like some storyboards did not have a theater aspect.

Participants expressed that they would be willing to control a show using a mobile device, but would prefer their choices to be private.

The activity revealed several design opportunities. Our team planned to incorporate different methods of audience participation during a show, such as voting and communication with actors.

After our Speed Dating sessions, we then voted on the storyboards that we were the most interested in exploring based on participant feedback. We ultimately went with the storyboard shown earlier and began to create an experience prototype.

Results of our voting session

Based on our speed dating results, our team wanted to test if users can stay active and engaged in an online murder-mystery style show. Users will take participate in a show as a character and interact with actors and other participants. Their role will involve improvisation, acting, significant effort, and keen attention to keep the story moving, which we believe are risky features. Some unknown aspects are whether or not participants will ask the actors and each other the right questions in order to move the plot forward. Additionally, participants may not be willing to put the required amount of effort in.

Our team came up with the following research goals:

To observe how comfortable users are interacting with actors in a show.

To determine the best way to set up an environment that encourages positive interactions between audience members and actors

To learn who participants want to interact with during their theater experience.

To discover if users are receptive to this method of interaction with a show.

To increase and maintain engagement with online theater

Solution

We then began to develop an interactive theater prototype using Gather.town to create a 2D digital space. Through a digital bodystorming exercise, users were actively involved as a character within the show. They walked around the virtual space, entered different “rooms” in the theater, held meetings at tables, and investigated their counterparts. In doing so, they would be able to gather key information and piece together insights from their conversations with actors, to help the solve a murder mystery.

Our initial prototype of the Gather.town

We then tested our prototype with various participants by having them interact with the 3 “suspects” and having them come to the middle table and vote on who they thought the killer was.

As participants interacted with the Gather.town, we documented some of their reactions:

“It’s fun. I felt like it was me that was the detective.” “It was very easy to navigate. The steps were also easy to go through.” “I like that Gather.town visualized a physical space.”

After conducting our experience prototyping sessions, our team had the following insights:

Participants felt the Gather Town platform was interesting and unique

and unique Participants were engaged while watching the videos

Participants liked the interactivity aspect of the show (being able to walk around, go to different tables, etc.)

aspect of the show (being able to walk around, go to different tables, etc.) A majority of participants incorrectly guessed the murderer; this reveal surprised them and made them curious to experience the live show that is supposed to occur prior to the interviews

Some participants wanted to know more about the story and who else was interviewed

The feedback was overwhelmingly positive for using a Gather.town. As we prepared to present our final solution to the Kelly Strayhorn Theater, we added to the visual aesthetic of the Gather.town to make it more polished and communicate the ambience of an actual theater.

Part of the final Gather.town!

Final Presentation

After completing the finishing touches on the Gather.town, we then presented our solution to the Kelly Strayhorn Theater as well as members of the CMU HCII community. We gave a short pitch on our project as we shared a poster that compiled all of our findings and insights.

Our final presentation poster

Conclusion

This platform works well with events that involve audience interaction, such as murder mystery performances, where the audience must talk with actors to get clues and discuss findings with other audience members to solve the mystery over the course of the performance.

We recommend theaters adapt the use of virtual platforms like Gather.town, as it enables them to provide an online theater experience while keeping the actor-audience relationship alive.