pretending for a living - why actors are all ux designers
DESCRIPTION
Slides for a talk delivered at UX Brighton 2013. User Centred Design is all about putting the person at the heart of the design. To do this successfully the UX practitioner needs to understand both the psychological drivers of that person – their motivations, needs and fears, hidden and expressed – as well as the overall situation in which that person is operating. This can sometimes seem daunting. But there is another group of people who have been doing a very similar thing for years – actors. They too need to understand the (sometimes hidden) motivations of their character, their emotional and psychological complexities, and their background and environment. And they have strategies and techniques for doing this. Can we as UX professionals perhaps learn from these to better inhabit and understand our prospective users both from the ‘inside out’ and the ‘outside in’?TRANSCRIPT
Pretending for a livingWhy actors are all UX designers
@bunnyfootsays
www.bunnyfoot.com
The ‘method’
Constantin Stanislavsky
‘the system’
Lee Strasberg
‘the method’
Stella Adler
‘given circumstances’
Sanford Meisner
‘in the moment’
Stanislavski’s ‘system’
Multi-variant, holistic and
psychophysiological.
Objectively observable and
quantifiable behavioural events.
The actor creates the character “from the inside out” and “from the outside in”…
MODERNISM
NATURALISM
CONDITIONING
AFFECTIVE MEMORY
BEHAVIOURAL PSYCHOLOGY
Strasberg’s ‘method’
The performance is the ultimate
expression of a complex psychology….
The actor summons emotions from from
their own life to illuminate the role.
The play / film is the climax of the character’s existence to date…
AFFECTIVE MEMORY
EMOTIONAL RECALL
SENSE MEMORY
BACK STORY
Adler’s school(s)
Rowing back on the ‘emotional
memory’ in favour of experience and
research.
The actor puts themself in the place of
the character rather than vice versa.
The psyche upon which the actor calls must not be the actor’s own, but the character’s…
RESEARCH
SITUATIONS
SENSORY IMAGINATION
INSIGHT
PHYSICAL EMBODIMENT
Meisner’s technique
Based on improvisation and
accessing an inner emotional life to
inform a performance.
The actor generates truth from
spontaneity.
Acting is “living truthfully under imaginary circumstances…”
‘IN THE MOMENT’
TASKS / OBJECTIVES
DOING
LISTEN AND RESPOND
PICKING UP THE ‘IMPULSES’
research
Creative conceptsevolve and
Develop the creativedevelop
Design guides/assets
DESIGN
define the
Information architecturedevelop the
Interaction designdocument with
Blueprints & instructions
ARCHITECT
long term
Supportregular
Monitoringongoing
Optimisation
OPTIMISE
define
Customer Modelsexplore
Customer interactiondevelop
Testable concepts
MODEL
learn about your
Businesslearn about your
Competitorslearn about your
Customers
RESEARCH
Living truthfully under imaginary circumstancesWhat actors do…
RESEARCH, TRAINING, CULTURAL IMMERSION, SITUATION EXPERIENCE, PREPARATION
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT, PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY, EMOTIONAL RECALL, AFFECTIVE MEMORY
TEXT ANALYSIS, LINE-READINGS, IMPROVISATION, STORIES
READ-THROUGHS, WORKSHOPS, REHEARSALS
CAMERA AWARENESS, VOICE TRAINING, MOVEMENT, COSTUME, MAKE-UP
PERFORMANCE AWARENESS, READING THE AUDIENCE, REPETITION
Living truthfully under imaginary circumstancesWhat UX Designers (can) do…
ETHNOGRAPHY, DEPTH INTERVIEWS, ONSITE IMMERSION, ANALYTICS, DIARY STUDIES
PERSONAS, SCENARIOS, MENTAL MODELS, EXPERIENCE MAPS
TASK FLOWS, PAGE FLOWS, CUSTOMER JOURNEYS, STORYBOARDS
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURES, WIREFRAMES, PROTOTYPES
INTERACTION DESIGN, VISUAL DESIGN, CODING
FORMATIVE TESTING, MULTI-VARIATE, SURVEYS, ANALYTICS…
Live truthfully under imaginary circumstances
Model from the ‘inside out’ as well as the ‘outside in’
The experience is the climax of [the user’s] life to date
Conceptualise, design and test ‘in the moment’
Know not just the situation but the meaning of that situation
Don’t worry…