Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
tion to shape what people do and feel in the context of a particular virtual
world. To understand more about how dramatic probability can be shaped,
we can look to the structural patterns that make probability manifest.
Don Norman observes: “Drama has always considered the multiple dimen-
sions of experience including one almost completely absent from the vocab-
ulary of product and system designers and from computer design: time.”
9
In Chapter 2, we discussed time in terms of magnitude. This chapter looks
at the element of time as essential to drama; specifi cally, the passage of time
permits the formulation of possibility into probability and necessity. The
design of what passes within a particular period of dramatic time creates
the emotional textures that keep us engaged.
Drama tends to compress time, while narrative tends to extend it. Tem-
poral compression of incidents provides strategic guidance in the inclusion
or exclusion of materials, thoughts, and actions. Compressed time inten-
sifi es dramatic action. Time plays an indispensable role in the shaping of
structural qualities as described in the next section.
How does one describe the shape of a particular play? What are its “ana-
tomical” parts? The previous sections dealt with qualitative elements; that
is, qualities that exist throughout the fabric of a play. This section deals with
the identifi able patterns through which qualitative elements are expressed.
The
shape
of a play can be visualized in terms of the pattern of emotional
tension created in its audience. Typically, tension rises during the course
of a play until the climax of the action and falls thereafter. As we observed
in the previous section, the climax of a play is the moment at which one
line of probability becomes necessity, and all competing lines of probabil-
ity are effectively eliminated. Hence the climax is not only an emotional
peak, but an informational one as well. In fact, the implicit assumption in
this analysis is that there is a direct relationship between what we
know
9. Personal communication, 2012.
