Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Who We Are

About DD+D

Project Bodystorming/DD+D is the name given to Dramatic Diversity’s (http://www.dramaticdiversity.com/) offerings in the various fields of design.
DD+D leverages theatre techniques and acting methodology to help designers empathize with users and produce better results for their clients, as well as to communicate and collaborate around design solutions. DD+D uses the following techniques in addition to Performance Testing, Design Improv and Design Empathy workshops to aid designers, design teams and their clients.

Embodied Dramatic Personas This workshop connects research to personas. We take two-dimensional representation of a customer and bring it to life. Participants learn to write character based personas and perform them. Make data memorable

Realistic Scenarios
This session is similar to a theatre rehearsal. Designers act out scenes based on users problems identified during the research phase to step into the shoes of the user in the context of a particular touch point or day-in-the-life. Participants learn how to use their embodied insights to create rich contextual scenarios.

Make Products Considerate
This workshop encourages designers to think differently about the products they design. Designers play the role of the product as they interact with users to understand what users want from an experience with a product. Participants explore creating products that are deferential, forthcoming, and perceptive. Learn to design good product behavior.

Bodystorming
This session uses a method of problem identification and solving to translate ideas and opportunities into physical experiences explored through improvisation and role-play. Bodystorming uses a design brief, props and simple costumes to give a sense of place. The process is designed to uncover how relationships between people, locations, and things affect ideas in ways that brainstorming alone cannot. It enables empathy and rapid iteration of ideas and relationships through a dynamic process of acting and evaluating. The process reveals how people interact with services, products, and each other on a physical, emotional and intuitive level.

Performance Testing
Flow: Using an existing scenario test how users interact with products or services. Set the stage/location, decide where everything should be. Assign roles and relationships based on personas and research. If you are testing a scenario, take it in slices. As soon as it starts to break down, the audience must call bug! Iterate the scene, changing the variables as you do. Change relationships the Who, Where, and Why.
Suggestions: Use this with potential users to test the experience of a device or service. Assess and record findings. Performance Testing can be done on the road ,or in the studio. Film the process/performance to capture and evaluate.


For more info. please contact Byron at byron@dramaticdiverstiy.com


Who We Are





Byron Stewart Byron Stewart is an actor, director, consultant, facilitator, and presenter, and is owner of Dramatic Diversity/DD+D. For the past ten years, Dramatic Diversity has provided corporate training and diversity & inclusion consultation to Fortune 1,000 companies as well as colleges and universities. Among the leading firms with which Dramatic Diversity has worked are BP/Amoco, Price Waterhouse Coopers, Motorola, Northern Trust Bank, Brookfield Zoo, University of Chicago, and PepsiCo.

Project Bodystorming/DD+D is the name given to Dramatic Diversity’s new offerings in the field of Design. An outgrowth of Dramatic Diversity, DD+D leverages acting methodology and improvisation to help designers empathize with users and produce better results for their clients.

Byron and the DD+D team deploy an innovative approach to helping product and service designers use acting methodology and improvisation to engage in the design process as well as communicate and collaborate around design possibilities. DD+D uses improvisation, bodystorming, embodied dramatic personas, realistic scenarios, participatory design, and forum theatre techniques to help designers empathize with users. Byron has applied theatre-based techniques to the design field facilitating theatre+design workshops for McDonald’s, Critical Mass, RTC, IIT’s Institute of Design, DePaul University, Columbia College and for Northwestern University’s Design for America Fellows. Byron has facilitated bodystorming sessions for Sears and Walgreens, and is a local leader and presenter for Chicago’s Interaction Design Association (IxDA). Byron was service design consultant on the development and launch of a new diabetes class for University of Chicago and coordinator of the Chicago Service Jam’11. He is a co-founding of the Service Design Network Chicago. Articles on Byron’s workshops have been featured in the UXmatters and Experience Matters online magazines.


As a professional actor, for over twenty years, he has received a Jeff Citation, Black Theatre Alliance Award, and an After Dark Award. He served as Artistic Director of A Real Read, Chicago's African American LGBT performance ensemble for five years. He has co-starred in feature films and did casting for the award winning made-for-television series, Kevin's Room I-III; produced by Chicago Department of Public Health and Black Cat Productions. Byron is a member of Actor's Equity Association, the Association for Standardized Patient Educators (simulation in health care). Mr. Stewart received his BFA degree from Howard University in Washington D.C.


Byron’s speaking engagements:
Upcoming:
IxDA Chicago “Personas and Prototyping”, SymphonyIRI Group,Chicago,IL. April, 2012
World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 “Theatre + Design”, Cable Factory, Helsinki,Finland June 2012
Past:
Design Research Conference “Design Improv” workshop, IIT/Institute of Design, Chicago, IL. Oct. 2011


Service Design Network’s Global Conference. “McDonald’s + Service Experience + Jam” Palace Hotel, San Francisco, CA. Oct. 2011


UXMasterclass Conference . “Using Theatre Techniques to Write Effective Personas” Field Museum Chicago, IL. Sept. 2011


DePaul University Continuing and Professional Education, with Millennia Consulting, “Bodystorming: Improv + Inclusion + Innovation” DePaul University, June, 2011



DD+D Team Members, led by Byron Stewart, bring expertise in: UX, interaction, product, and service design, ergonomics, HCI, and business. Theatre, improv, storytelling, facilitating, directing, acting.
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