We also needed to create more clarity around the form of the actual tangible product that would help to satisfy our project statement:
I designed a format for the front and back of the album cards
I kept in mind that it needed to be simple and easy to print, so I used a basic, black font with a strong type hierarchy to distinguish different elements
Each card has the recommended album on the front. On the back is the album name and artist, with the name of who recommended it and why.
We each used my template to create our own personal recommendations for prototyping
DISCOG
IDEATION
PROTOTYPING
FINAL DISPLAYS
what is discog?
Discog is a public attraction that allows users to globally send and receive new album recommendations from strangers. It produces a tangible representation of this in the form of a card to help the user connect to their music and to others.
research
In an effort to discover what music listeners were craving, we implemented a variety of research methods:
We asked users from our lives and our school to fill out a questionnaire regarding their music habits
We recruited a few user for one-on-one interviews about what they want changed in the way they interact with their music
Around campus, we posted graffiti walls with very broad, music-related prompts
After we analyzed our findings we produced the following project statement to capture what we were solving:
participatory design
To further strengthen our refined idea, we conducted two participatory design workshops:
The first workshop, we focused on broader elements like refining our concept, its usage, its location, and the kinds of interaction
The second workshop got more specific, looking at the physical form of Discog, the logistics and order of interactions, and also hypotheticals about future use and misuse of the product
In each workshop we used techniques like card-sorting, think-aloud method, sketching, interviewing, and low-fidelity prototyping
forming ideas
To move from our research into more tangible ideas, we used a process that moved from very general to very specific ideation:
we started with a series of 8x8 grids to create a broad spectrum of 60 ideas (I sketched a quarter)
we then down-selected using a series of decision matrices until we had 3 primary ideas
several rounds of critique from peers, educators, and professionals in the field helped us move from 3 concepts down to 1 refined one.
what was my role?
As one of three industrial designers in our group of four, my role was to help ideate, sketch, and prototype our physical product. I have a background in drawing, and this allowed me to take on many of the images for our product including the animated video.
what was our goal?
Our user research indicated that people have a desire to reconnect with their music in a world where over-consumption of music is easier than ever. We wanted to create a product which would increase this connection while simultaneously fostering connection between people around the sharing of music.
HOW MIGHT WE
create a tangible form of music that strengthens listeners’ musical identity in order to encourage intentional listening and foster more interactions around music?
In a busy tourist area, a user approaches Pluto, lifting its lid to begin interaction.
A small screen with scrolling text says, “Hi! im Pluto! Please enter your favorite album”
The user types in any album of their choosing, first the album name and then the artist.
Pluto accepts the user’s album and adds it to its library. It begins to play the album.
As it retrieves a new album to recommend, Pluto’s globe spins and glows where the album was entered.
The user gets to watch as Pluto prints a small card stock album, which comes out of the slot below.
The user retrieves the card. Their entered album will be randomly recommended to a later user.
Users can show off, share, and trade their Pluto prints with each other!
IN THE REAL WORLD
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storyboarding
With our product concept solidified, we moved into sketching and prototyping. We created a rough timeline of the interactions associated with our product, and then I drew a storyboard that captured said events. It was intended to be shown for future critiques to improve clarity surrounding our product and its functions.
modeling
We need to have a more functional display of our product since we knew we could not make a full scale looks-like model
I designed a template on Illustrator of only the parts of Discog the user would interact with
I used the laser cutter to make a clean model of the keyboard, printing slot, and globe
This is a mid-fidelity prototype, but is very efficient and effective.
final model
Our final model utilizes the previous model I made, while I also added a demonstration of the screen-based elements in the back of the product and cleaned up some of the deficiencies from before.
product video
I hand-drew a 460-frame 2-D animated video to convey the basic intentions and function of our product. It is quite heavily stylized and simplistic, but this ultimately contributes to the feeling and vibe we wanted.
*this takes you to vimeo im not paying for figma pro
