Wharton Center Usher: Persona

by Alina Tredeau
For academic purposes only.

User: Sydney James, Student at Michigan State University

Background Information: Sydney is a current Senior at Michigan State University in the College of Arts and Letters. She has a background in dance which includes ballet, hip hope, jazz, and lyrical starting at age four. She has always been interested in theatre and enjoys going to see performances but is also very busy with classes. Her close friends also enjoy dance and have similar backgrounds. She tends to be the organizer for the group of friends whenever they have an activity to plan. The group tries to do activities that they can all do together.

Goal: River North Chicago Dance Company is coming to the Wharton Center for Performing Arts on Michigan State University’s campus. Sydney and six of her friends would really like to see the show but have not yet been to the Wharton Center and therefore don’t know much about the venue, seating choices and costs. Their goal is to make sure they all sit together and that all of them have a good view.

Design Intervention: I propose a website tool that includes the following to enhance Sydney and her friends experience:
- The site will allow you to chose the show you are interested in, and depending on the show you chose, the entire experience will change to correlate with that type of experience.
- The online environment will then offer a number of options for the user. One of the options will be to view show costs for seeing the show live, and then also show costs for watching the show online.
- Sydney chooses to watch the show live. She can then choose seats for herself and her 6 friends. She can click on any view in the orchestra level or grand tier level and move closer, farther, or to the right or left. She can choose to only see views where there are seven seats together and can therefore check that each seat has a good view and that they can sit together. She chooses the view she would like and the digital usher selects those seats for her. She can now buy tickets and receive any additional help from the digital usher. The digital usher could provide an interactive map to direct her and her friends not only to the Wharton Center, but to their specific seat. At any point she can ask the digital usher to check the program or get show ratings. With the helps of these tools Sydney and her friends can make informed decisions about the show and watch it together from the place of their choosing.