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Theater And Software

The idea comes first.  Something brilliant, that bugs at you until you DO something about it.  (UX at this stage will involve people responding to this idea, is it something they even want? What is closest to it?  How is this different?  How can you iterate before you even begin?)

Then there is the planning.  Laying out a skeleton and working your way through it.  Revise and rework. (In software, this stage may be Agile, built 2 weeks at a time.)

The final draft, the final blueprint.  Now you have to build it. Program it, cast it, hopefully you'll have enough money to see it to birth. A real prototype of what you want it to be. You can test it out on people before its actual release, the UX testing is equivalent to bringing in your directing mentor for the final dress.  "Tell me its fatal flaws before we open!!"

Then finally, its on its feet.   Opening night, the day everything goes live. Maybe its an MVP, Minimum Viable Product.

2 weeks of previews, features added to the next iteration. People get to see it and clap or yawn.  If they are somehow trapped into usage, then hopefully their suffering won't be too bad.

And then it is out there. The longer it is out, the longer it has to be polished, or to have the shine taken from it. Have all its faults displayed openly, prominently.

Or more likely, it will be a bore.  And will get washed away by the tide of exciting and better.

And new.


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