How a career in Theater prepared me for a career in UX.
The first day of rehearsal is always extremely exciting for a theater company. Usually there is a round of introductions, you are meeting a lot of new people for the first time, seeing old collaborators, and get to really appreciate how many people it takes to put on a play. For the past 10 years I’ve been lucky enough to be working in theater in various roles both on and off the stage. I’ve directed, been a light board op, a stage hand, and played characters in Shakespearian dramas, restoration comedies, and in new works.
When the COVID-19 pandemic brought this work to a stand-still, I admit, I panicked. In this frenzied state of combatting depression and brainstorming ways to move forward, I remembered a job interview I once had. This job was a receptionist role (one of many “day jobs” in between theatre gigs) and while I didn’t end up accepting the position, that interview had always stuck with me. The job was at a design firm that conducted user research for their clients. As the interviewers were describing work the company did — interviewing users, compiling qualitative and quantitative data, making recommendations for how their clients could make use of this data — I remember thinking “that sounds great, I could do that”. But I was an artist and not interested in a different career path. At least not back then.
Fast forward to September 2020 after months of unemployment, and no hope of returning to the stage on the horizon, I came across the field of User Experience design again. This time I decided to see what it was all about and signed up for CareerFoundry’s immersive UX design course.
While learning about UX design certainly had its unique challenges, I was relieved to find that one aspect, the design thinking process, was already highly familiar to me. Of course there are many ways to outline the design thinking process, every bootcamp or course uses a variation and every project adapts the process to its own needs. The bones, however, the philosophy behind the design process, being user-centered, collaborative, and iterative, that is the same process we use in theater to put on a show.
Let me walk you through the design thinking process as it applies to rehearsing and opening a play. In this case, the user is the audience. All the theater makers, the director, actors, designers, are the…well, the designers. And the play on opening night is the product.
Understand
In UX…Research and competitor analysis.
In Theater… Research.
It takes a village to put together a season of shows. Literary Managers, Artistic Directors, and other stakeholders have to do a lot of reading and research to understand their problem space. What is going on in the world that warrants discourse? What rights are available? Who are the artists in the community that can contribute and benefit within these opportunities? What plays have been successful. or not so successful, in the past? Is the budget for the required set available? After taking all these things into consideration and more, a play is chosen. Let’s say it’s an election year, a popular classic choice might be Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.
Observe
In UX…User Interviews.
In Theater…Dramaturgy and reading the play.
Dramaturgs are theater researchers. In this highly important role, they provide the director, designers, and actors with contextual information, reference points, and general knowledge about the world of the play. When working on Shakespeare this could be historical background on when the piece was written. In Julius Caesar, for example, when Antony prepares his speech “I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him” that actor can deliver a much more powerful and effective performance if they have an understanding of the political figure that was the real-life Julius Caesar. The actor playing Portia, Brutus’ wife who demands respect and the truth from him as “by the right and virtue of [her] place” she deserves to know why 12 strange men have come to their house at odd hours, has so much more to work with if she understands the traditional role of women in 44 BC and how she is acting out against that.
POV
In UX…User Personas and Problem Statements.
In Theater…What does the play say about the characters and the world?
For actors this is probably the most direct comparison to the world of UX. Actors should know from reading the text what is said about their character. Do other characters call them bold? Intelligent? Melancholy? What are their given circumstances? The facts about their life. Are they innocent, like the poet Cinna? Or guilty, like the conspirator Cinna? How does that affect what they want during the course of their scene?
Theater designers also have a point of view. The costume designer can make strong choices in the colors and shapes of clothing that they use to help delineate the different political affiliations of the characters. In Julius Caesar most of the action happens off-stage and many scenes take place in the private homes of the characters. The set designer must carefully curate what these spaces tells the audience about the character’s status or even their state of mind.
Ideate
In UX…Userflows and Card Sorting.
In Theater…Tablework and subtext.
As the director and actors work through the play, they get to start digging a little deeper beyond the basic plot of what happens. Together, they get to figure out how it happens. For an actor it means asking yourself, what are different ways your character will get what they want? How can you employ these tactics in your body and your voice so that the audience understands what is going on?
For a director, designers, and the stage manager it can also mean logistics. In Act 3 Julius Caesar must die on stage and the conspirators smear their hands with his blood. Will this blood be represented realistically with food coloring and corn syrup? Or will swaths of red fabric be used representatively? How does Caesar’s body get carried off safely at the end of the scene? Will the actors need to wash their hands back stage before their next entrance?
Prototype
In UX…Wireframing and Prototyping.
In Theater…Let’s get this play up on its feet!
Blocking rehearsals are rehearsals where the actors start to play around with movement, props, and even costume pieces. In an epic like Julius Caesar, fight choreography gets put into place. Just like we use wireframing tools like Figma or Sketch to stand in the place of the back-end engineering of a product, actors will rehearsal blocks to create set elements, and wear rehearsal costumes to get used to moving in particular shoes or with the extra fabric and contraints that will be on their final costume.
Test
In UX…Usability Testing.
In Theater…It’s time for a full run!
Rehearsal time is limited and eventually the stage movement is set, the actors know their lines, and the story has taken shape. But it’s hard to see how everything has come together without a crucial piece — an audience. Even before moving onto the set or before costumes have been finished, rehearsal observers provide valuable feedback to the product that is being developed. Even having one or two extra people in the room, interns, or visiting artists, provides valuable feedback. Through their reactions to the work when it can be run from start to finish, the artists learn what choices are working, and what may need to be revisited in the process.
Present
In UX…It’s time to present your design to stakeholders!
In Theater…It’s time to present your design to stakeholders!
Technical rehearsals and dress rehearsals are when it all comes together. While the actors and the directors have been steering the rehearsal ship so far, these last few rehearsals are when the design elements get integrated and the play is solidified into a vision of the final product, like when UI elements are applied. Many theaters will hold preview performances, a last chance to get audience and critic (user) feedback and make final tweaks before opening night.
It’s been said a million times because it’s true, changing careers isn’t easy. When I decided to dive into the world of UX, I was nervous that the learning curve would be too steep without a design background. But one of the most important lessons that theater has taught me is that your career, your craft, is a marathon, not a sprint. Anything worth learning is worth taking the time to learn. If I could find how my past career has prepared me for my new one, you can too.