“Really smart design and layout. I love the idea of this being an archive for all our past content.”
— Kevin Malgesini, Seattle Children’s Theatre Managing Director
Project Details
My Team
2 UX designers
Timeframe
10 weeks
User research
Content design
Content strategy
my Duties
Seattle Children’s Theatre is a world-renowned company that provides matinee performances for local schools. Seattle Children’s Theatre wanted to enrich the field trip experience with engaging educational experiences for students before and after the performances.
Context
Challenge
Prior to the pandemic, Seattle Children’s Theatre produced educational Active Audience Guides that contained educational content and activities for teachers and students.
No current educational material
Active Audience Guide PDF from 2021
Design a place where educators can find all educational resources for SCT performances.
Solution
User Research
We interviewed five middle school teachers to get feedback on the matinee experience and their perspective on the Active Audience Guide content.
We found five key insights:
Teachers don’t have time to create lesson plans around play themes prior to field trips.
The Active Audience Guides were informative, but lengthy.
Students learn best with videos and interactive content.
Teachers must prep students on proper theater behavior before the show.
Students are curious about what goes on backstage.
Teacher interviews
I analyzed past Active Audience Guides and brainstormed how the content could be restructured into more appealing formats.
Content audit
I looked at the websites of several children’s theater companies across the nation. All had a centralized area on the website that contained:
Interactive content.
Behind-the-scene videos of performances.
Searchable and downloadable activities and lesson plans.
Competitive analysis
Recommendations
Teaching Resources Portal
We created a portal containing teaching resources and activities related to Seattle Children’s Theatre’s past and present performances. Educators can:
Filter by production season, activity, and student age.
Find relevant archived performance material.
The portal was originally named the Learning Center.
Testers told us the label was too vague, so I gave them several other label choices. Teaching Resources was the clear winner because they said it was specific to educators.
User testing
What was once busy copy in a PDF came to life as engaging videos on several new web pages within the Teaching Resources portal.
Active Audience Guides reimagined
The video hub gives students a peek into what goes on backstage. I showcased the things the cast and crew do to make a performance magical.
Video hub
Before
Interviews with set and costume designers in an Active Audience Guide from 2021.
After
I created a page of short video clips designed to educate students on how to behave during the performance and what to expect before and after the play.
Theatre Etiquette page
Before
After
The client wanted ways to enrich the field trip experience and engage students before and after a Seattle Children’s Theatre performance.
Results
Our team delivered a teaching resources portal that contained:
Easy-to-find content via filters and search.
Interactive pages that appealed to students.
A way to archive past, but relevant material.
The client was enthusiastic about our solution and praised our design:
“Really smart design and layout. I love the idea of this being an archive for all our past content.”
— Kevin Malgesini, Seattle Children’s Theatre Managing Director