Computers as Theatre: Lessons For Online Retailers

Computers As Theatre: Lessons For Online Retailers  

By Brenda Laurel

The book, “Computers as Theatre,” explores the analogy of web interface design to dramatic stage, where actors and the audience engage in a meaningful way. To establish the foundation for her argument, Laurel discusses the phenomenon of “direct manipulation,” in which web interaction is designed to facilitate the illusion of instantaneous response. Internet retailers have longed to unlock the key of immediate response to propel top line sales, searching for the web interface that engages and inspires the visitor to take action.   

In an examination of various interface theories, Laurel points to the “Mental Models View,” the
Precognitive Science View” and others to show the nexus between the computer interface and the individual. She discards all of them and advances with her “theatrical based” point of view by initially exploring the concept that a website interface is like a Proscenium theatre with actors engaging in the live action – creating unwieldy confusion. This analogy quickly falls apart as actors ascend to the stage creating chaos. This preliminary theory is replaced by Laurel’s belief that human-computer interaction is like an oval stage. Instead of the Proscenium arch, the oval contains all relevant characters illuminated at the appropriate time to propel the action forward.  I like this analogy better as I can see myself navigating through a digital environment “illuminating” a specific functional area and then having the computer interface respond in kind. For internet retailers, this means that I navigate a website to a particular style of clothing and then drill in on a defining size, then I isolate for a particular color and make a decision to buy with a few clicks of the mouse.

With a quest to define interactivity, Laurel states that interactivity occurs with three variables: frequency, range and significance. Further, she states that human computer activity may be divided into two broad categories: productive and experiential. Today graphic designers continue to navigate the maze to provide highly-purposeful web experiences that advance the brand and meet corporate objectives. In keeping with her analogy to theatre, Laurel cites German dramatist Bertold Brecht who stated that the true post dramatic catharsis does not occur until after the audience has interpreted the work and assimilated it into their lives. For consumers, Brecht’s contemporary catharsis may be the pushing the digital shopping cart through the online store to the final checkout counter with a few simple keystrokes.