by ingrid.hjelm-hansen -

Visual Prototype

After spending some weeks developing a technical prototype, I started building a visual one as well. The visual prototype represents the size and appearance of my concept, but serves no functionality. It is made of paper, cardboard, plastic, tape and fabric. 

I started drawing some sketches of the intended design. In the blog post Concept Definition and Aim from May, I stated what buttons I find important to include. I worked further with these and concluded to implement seven buttons: 

  • Power on/off
  • Sound up/down
  • Play melody/record
  • Replay melody
  • Return to previous melody
  • Pause melody
  • Skip to next melody

I want the design to be clean and understandable, without any unnecessary buttons. But after my user tests, I also understood that buttons such as replay and skip were crucial in order to serve good user experiences. 

The lower part of the product is the speaker, and the upper part involve the buttons. The biggest button in the middle is the one that will be used the most. When it is pressed, the random generated melody plays. This is also the button that must be pressed in order to record the sound of the user input. In the next version of my prototype, I will also include a LED ring around that gives instant feedback on the input. 

by ingrid.hjelm-hansen -

Concept Definition and Aim

After some guidance last week, I have worked with defining my concept. To figure out what I want the final product to offer, I started by writing my visions down on paper. My concept is the result of all my research so far, and I want it to be a working solution for my defined problem statement.

Firstly, it is important that the gadget is fun and simple. Based on the results from my research, it should not become an element of stress. I want it to compliment normal music lessons, but I would not want it to be controlled by any teacher. The music students can be recommended to use the gadget, but not forced in any way. The results will not be the same if they are not motivated on their own.

It will not be possible to share or save scores. However, there will be integrated feedback after each sequence. The users can see if their mimic was correct or not. Due to motivational purposes, I want the focus to be on positive feedback. The gadget will tell when melodies are played wrong, but the goal is to motivate users to try again.

When making my first sketches and paper prototype, I visioned the product to only contain one big button. When developing the concept further, I figured that I should implement some additional buttons. I want it to look simple and easy to understand, but also include all essential functionalities. It should be possible to pause the sound, as well as replaying it. It would also be reasonable to enable a skip button, one for returning to the past sound and one for skipping to the next one. In addition, I will of course add buttons to control the sound level. All the buttons should follow standard patterns and communicate actions clearly.

To define the objective in a clear manner, I composed an aim and the intented user group.

Aim

Inspire and encourage musicians to improvise and play by ear.

The product can be used as:

  1. An education tool to compliment classical training
  2. A fun game for sharing musical exploration with friends

User group

Curious musicians in all ages and levels.