Overview
An interactive podcast app designed for the Kelly Strayhorn Theatre (KST) that gives users an opportunity to listen to discussions on relevant topics to KST and their community, and provide their own opinions if they wanted to, with the intent that their contributions would be incorporated into future podcasts and serve as foundation and a source of inspiration for future KST programming and art.
My Role: Researcher, Visual Design Lead
UX Methods: Stakeholder Map, Customer Journey Map, Walk the Wall, Contextual Inquiry, Affinity Diagram, Storyboard, Think-Aloud Protocol
Tools: Miro, Figma
Context
Kelly Strayhorn Theatre (KST) is a local performing arts theatre situated at the heart of the historic East Liberty neighbourhood in Pittsburgh, USA.
Community is at the core of KST’s mission, and KST has always served as an exemplar of accessibility and acceptance in the East Liberty community and beyond. However, through our research, we found that this mission has been significantly impacted by the physical and interpersonal challenges brought forth by ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. We used this problem as the starting point.
Research
01 Exploring the problem space
Individual Research
Mapping out stakeholder relations for performance arts businesses and the customer journey of KST’s core user group of a casual theatre goer.
Group Discussion
Consolidating our understanding through a “Walk the Wall” exercise to identify key avenues for further research and arrive at an initial problem statement.
How can we create rich engagement between artists, theatre goers, and KST staff through novel digital interactions?
Initial Problem Statement:
02 Validating our problem statement: Are we following the right North Star?
Designing for an indoor experience
At first, we looked at an in-home approach to see if we could build engagement by having users interact with each other on existing technologies or launching KST’s very own digital platform.
From customer survey data provided by KST, we knew that social media, particularly Facebook, was the major platform used by its customers to discover KST’s programming and events. Thus, we first utilised “Think-Aloud Protocol” to examine existing services, in particular Facebook Events and Facebook Live, to assess current technologies’ benefits and limitations in order to inform our own design direction.
This study was conducted with 5 users on 3 tasks, which spanned event discovery to watching a live stream.
While the study results provided valuable insights on how users currently interact with online events and streaming content, it was also revealed that:
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"I'm working remotely and I'm on Zoom all day, so I don't want to be online in my free time too."
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“If a live performance is 10/10…a home reproduction is 6/10”
Perceived entertainment and informational value determines users’ intention to engage
People do not have a strong preference for live vs. recorded content but strongly prefer in-person performances
Event time and availability of the user largely determines users’ decision to participate
People were tired of being on their screens and wanted a reason to get outside and away from their work-from-home routines
Making a pivot
From the above insights, we realised that launching KST’s own digital platform would not have been a viable idea given KST’s current resources as well as its lack of competitive advantage against established interactive platforms like Twitch and Facebook and streaming giants like Netflix and YouTube.
In addition, while the idea of hosting KST content on existing platforms requires fewer resources, KST’s content may pale in comparison to other content on such platforms.
Most importantly, our initial direction went against users’ overwhelming frustration with a screen-dominated lifestyle.
It became evident that our initial problem statement needed to be revised to cater to the evolving needs of the users and adjust to people’s pandemic lifestyles.
Exploring an outdoor experience
As a result, instead of looking to create KST’s own interactive digital platform or presenting their programming on existing platforms, we realised that we needed to pivot our design direction to explore design opportunities for outdoor experiences. As a starting point, we recalled KST’s core mission in connecting local communities and uplifting underrepresented voices through art. And thus, we expanded our scope of research by looking outside KST’s doors to its surrounding neighbourhood of East Liberty to uncover fresh perspectives for our new design direction.
How can we leverage KST’s art and cultural programming to create effective user engagement in a way that not only aligns with people’s pandemic lifestyles but also facilitates KST’s core mission of connecting and uplifting local communities?
Revised Problem Statement:
03 Contextual Inquiry
We conducted contextual inquiries for one week (adapted due to social distancing by letting participants virtually ‘walk’ through East Liberty through screen-sharing street view on Google Maps) on the following topics:
People’s connections to KST and the local performance arts scene
People’s experiences with the East Liberty neighbourhood
People’s daily lifestyles and habits during the pandemic
We recruited 5 participants, each with 5+ years of experience living in Pittsburgh and varying degrees of involvement with East Liberty and the local arts scene.
Using an “Affinity Diagram” to consolidate our interview data, we arrived at 4 main categories of findings and 3 key insights that guided our ideation:
People had some understanding of East Liberty’s history and recent events, but not so much its culture
People were very interested in learning more about the East Liberty neighbourhood but did not know how to
Arts and cultural programming was a promising storytelling medium for historic Pittsburgh neighbourhoods
Ideation & Design
01 Storyboarding and speed dating
We generated 15 concept storyboards that aimed at providing safe and accessible ways for people to connect with each other and learn about important community topics.
Personally, I devised three concepts. Two of these (outlined in blue below) resonated with our participants the most and were selected out of the 15 concepts to serve as the foundation for our designs.
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“I really like something to listen to while I am on a run or doing chores.”
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“One of my most memorable experiences was when I provided input into a show.”
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“I’m not inclined to go out for these events during COVID, but I feel way more comfortable just walking outside.”
Through “Speed Dating” the storyboards with 10 users, two key insights emerged:
1. People connected with the idea of a simple engagement, like a podcast, while they went for a walk, took a break, or doing chores
2. People were interested in actively engaging with KST’s cultural programming
An interactive community podcast mobile app that centres around discussions on relevant topics to KST and their communities and encourages community co-creation by giving listeners the ability to provide their own opinions, which can be incorporated into future KST programming and art.
Our Solution:
02 Low-Fidelity Prototype & User Testing
We wanted to test different types of use cases and environments in order to expand our design opportunities. Thus, we created prototypes for three different scenarios that were meant to cover a range of relevant contexts.
The three scenarios were:
Listening to a neighbourhood-specific topic when walking around the neighbourhood on a guided tour
Listening to a neighbourhood-specific topic without being physically present in the neighbourhood
Listening to a conversational podcast when doing chores at home
Low-fidelity prototypes were developed and tested with 12 users. All scenarios were simulated using the pairing of one Figma prototype and one contextual video with a podcast playing in the background that was intended to immerse the users in each scenario.
We aimed at answering the following questions when testing:
What’s the optimal scenario for interacting with KST through a podcast?
What’s participants’ willingness and preferred methods of responding to different prompts?
What impact does co-creation have on listener engagement?
Testing for Scenario 1
We uncovered three main insights that guided how we iterated on our designs:
Insight: Users liked being physically immersed in the context of the podcast as it positively influenced their engagement. They also enjoyed conversational podcasts in more relaxed environments.
Insight: Users appreciated having a variety of different interaction methods, but they also preferred to have the option of focused listening.
Our action: We designed various methods of interaction including polling, typing, voice recording, and drawing. Additionally, we added the option for listeners to pick their level of interactivity prior to starting each podcast and the option to skip any interactive prompt.
Our action: We focused on designing our prototype to cater to Scenario 1 and 3 while providing users with the flexibility of switching between these two options.
Insight: Users wished to express their thoughts freely while also being able to see quality responses from others in the community, which can further encourage their engagement.
Our action: We made sure to allow users to access community responses at any time and incorporated a “staff picks” section for certain questions that would showcase selected high quality responses from other listeners.
Final Prototype: PodKST
Through compelling storytelling and co-creation, this interactive podcast gives the members of the growing KST community an accessible way to connect, learn, and express themselves. It is an accessible, scalable, and flexible service that allows KST to tell the stories of under-represented voices in the community, and through community insight and co-creation, build a tangible expression of the greater KST community, together.
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“I love the idea of being guided around East Liberty while listening. It gives me the physical context that grounds the content in the actual community.”
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“I think the podcast is an even better way to learn about this issue than reading. Not only does it require less cognitive load, you are also hearing other people’s opinions.”
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“Co-creation builds a bridge between cultures and causes.”
Client Pitch Poster
“PodKST is a viable and highly adaptable extension of our current business model. It accurately grasped at the core of our mission in connecting local communities.”
— Joseph Hall, Executive Director of Kelly Strayhorn Theatre