Seattle Children's Theater is a local company committed to producing shows tailored for school-age children. Many of their productions incorporate educational elements, addressing historical and social issues to encourage children to consider problems from various perspectives. Historically, the theater has developed content for teachers to access, assisting in class preparation and fostering discussions about the themes presented in the plays. Our objective was to further explore and identify ways to enhance effectiveness and overall experience for teachers, ultimately improving engagement with these important issues.
The Problem
How can we enhance the field trip experience for teachers and students at SCT, improving audience engagement with subject material, messages, and historical context information before, during, and after the trip?
My Role
I worked on this project with two other people. I contributed to research, ideation and brainstorming, information architecture, and i created the initial prototype for user testing and conducted tests with participants. I also assisted with the high-fidelity prototype as needed.
Research
Studying User Behaviors and Needs
What we did…
For the research portion of our project, we decided to undertake several different activities to help us gain a broader perspective on our problem.
Audit of Seattle Children's Theater: We closely examined how Seattle Children's Theater is currently addressing the problem and reviewed past approaches to identify successes and areas needing improvement.
User Interviews: We conducted interviews with teachers to delve into their experiences with Seattle Children's Theater, exploring what aspects they liked and areas for potential improvement.
Competitive Audit: We analyzed other children's theaters to understand how they tackle similar challenges, identifying successful strategies and areas for improvement.
active audience guide cover art from a past season
The homepages of competitors were analyzed during the competitive audit
What we learned…
Most children's theaters we looked at had content similar to the active audience guides SCT used to offer.
Some of the teachers we interviewed were not aware that the active audience guides were offered at all.
A favorite part of the students' experiences at SCT was the Q&A after the performances. Kids love to get a look behind the scenes.
Presenting information to children in video format is more engaging and entertaining, and it's easier for teachers who already have a lot on their plate.
Finding The Solution
Building Empathy and Brainstorming solutions
Content Breakdown
we reviewed the active audience guides from the 2021-2022 season, categorizing their content.
This process provided us with a visual reference, helping us comprehend how SCT has communicated with teachers in the past and identify the types of learning materials they deem valuable for students.
Brainstorming
Armed with a better understanding of the problem and all the different elements involved, we conducted brainstorming sessions, aiming to generate as many ideas as possible. Subsequently, we utilized those ideas to determine the direction we wanted to pursue
Affinity Maps
We utilized the information collected from our research, along with the breakdown of the old active audience guides, to create affinity maps. This process helped us organize ideas and identify patterns
Wireframe
Rapid Visualization of Basic Design Elements and Layouts
Adding structure
This sitemap was created to help visualize the expansion of the website and outline all the necessary pages for inclusion in the wireframe. Additionally, it illustrates how our addition would integrate into the existing website structure.
Layout and Usability
The low-fidelity wireframe served as the initial prototype iteration, aiding in visualizing and communicating design concepts and layout ideas efficiently. Moreover, it played a pivotal role in conducting user testing, enabling us to gather valuable feedback early in the design process
User Testing
Refining the Product Through Direct User Feedback
Validating Design Decisions and Identifying Usability Issues
Our objective with this prototype was to design an experience that swiftly delivers all necessary information to teachers. We had each participant navigate through a series of processes, focusing on elements of the design that facilitated success and identifying areas for improvement.
What we wanted to Learn…
Given that we were building upon an existing website, our priority was to identify the most intuitive method for users to access our website.
With the learning resource pages serving as the centralized repository for all teaching resources related to a specific play, we aimed to ensure their quick and easy discoverability.
We aimed to assess the findability of behind-the-scenes content and Play etiquette resources through testing.
Additionally, we sought to ensure the usability of the resource finder filter and the accessibility of content within the results section
Low-Fidelity Resource finder
Our Findings
Users found it easiest to access the resource page through the education center dropdown.
The layout design of the education center successfully facilitated users in finding what they were looking for.
However, the design of the resource finder filter required improvements, as participants encountered difficulties applying filters.
Similarly, the design of the cards in the resource finder results area needed enhancements to effectively distinguish between different types of content.
Following a selection process involving participants choosing from a group of names, the Teaching Resource Center emerged as the preferred name to represent the pages being designed
We addressed the feedback gathered during the user testing phase, focusing primarily on improving the resource finder section as it posed the most challenges for participants
High-Fidelity Prototype
Improving the User Experience & Addressing Concerns
Improvements were made to all pages, aiming to elevate them to a high-fidelity level. Color schemes, font styles, and images were incorporated to mimic the existing website's design aesthetic. Below are examples of the three main page layout designs: the Teaching Resource Landing Page, "The Watsons Go to Birmingham" Teaching Resources Page, which demonstrates how all the resource pages will look, and the Behind-the-Scenes Content Page, which has the same layout design as the Theater Etiquette Page.
