Developer Insights – Stories & Analogies

One of the most obvious physical constraints in the theater is the amount of time that the audience can endure without a break. A recent production of “The Weir” at the San Jose Rep, ran 2 hours without an intermission, likewise Sondheim’s Assassins. Of course, both are significantly shorter than the 2 hours, 45 minutes running time of the opera “Das Rheingold” which is also performed without intermission. In each case, a special effort was made to inform the audience in advance so that they can plan accordingly.

Intermissions serve multiple purposes:

• the performers and the audience get a break
  • to use the restrooms
  • to eat
  • to drink
  • to wake up from a nice nap
  • to check in with the babysitter
  • to check in with the office
  • to check on the sports event that they would rather be attending
  • to smoke
  • to see and be seen
  • to mingle and network
• the set can be significantly changed. Two good examples of this are the sets for The Producers and for Noises Off.
• more significant costume changes can be done
• the audience can chat and digest what they have seen so far
• special donors may recieve special attention in a special intermission reception
• latecomers who could not be seated in their assigned seats may now be properly seated
• audience members who have gotten lost or confused can get caught up
• the audience can shop and buy their souvenirs whether it as simple as a poster or T-shirt or as exotic as a Plush Bag with Chihuahua from Legally Blonde – The Musical
• the theater can ply their show merchandising
• the theater can promote their upcoming shows
• the theater can promote their subscriptions

But intermissions have downsides:

• they may be prohibited by the copyright owner
• the time for “the actual performance” may be reduced. Union agreements require that no performance shall last longer than a certain number of hours inclusive of the Actor’s designated call and intermissions.
• the momentum and “mood” of the performance is stalled and needs to be rebuilt
• the audience may leave
• the audience will forget things
• herding the audience back into the theater can be time consuming, a ten minute intermission can turn into 20 minutes
• some patrons will sneak into better seats that were not occupied [cf. Fair or Foul, 2000 Randy Cohen, ethicist, NYT]
• some patrons will attempt to climb on to the stage or move parts of the set

So how does this relate to software development?

• One of the most important constraint in the mobile space whether laptops or phones is battery life. A short battery life can turn into an unexpected intermission in the middle of a task.
  • What is the user experience of your application if your user runs out of battery?
  • How accurate are the estimations of time remaining?
  • For your user scenarios, do you have an expected amount of time required for each task?
  • Do you warn people that you estimate that they will not be able to complete a task given existing battery life remaining?
  • Do you use prior experience of user to refine these messages?
  • As the market for your product changes, do you revisit these assumptions?
• Some applications lock certain resources while the user is executing a transaction. For example, a ticketing application will lock your seat selection while you go through the checkout process.
  • If you don’t complete the transaction within the given window, the transaction is canceled and you have to start over.
  • How do you decide how much time to allow the user?
  • How do you indicate the amount of time left to the user?
  • Do you lie to customer and actually give them more time than you say?
  • Do you let the customer pause the transaction if no one else is making a transaction?
• If the task the user is performing may be quite long, do you provide intermissions, natural stopping points, so that they can stop and return at a known good spot? Consider the example of using tax software.