currentform | Simon King, Interaction Designer
Bookmarked was the result of a month and a half long research oriented exploration of tangible interaction.
We began by looking at current music players. They were either overly complex, too stripped down, or appealed to nostalgia.
We talked to seniors to learn how music fits into their lives. Our directed storytelling sessions explosed common themes.
Rough concepts were generated based on the themes we saw. These were then shown to more seniors for validation.
Our concept validation session helped us understand our boundaries and focus on the needs our player should address.
This led to a familiar form and interaction: flip through pages of the book, pull out the tab on the side to play.
Each spread in the book is associated with an album. Use the built in ribbons to bookmark it and add it to your playlist.
After marking you can close the book or add more albums. Pull out the tab to play, move it up or down to change volume.
People told us that music and memories are intertwined. A blank page opposite every album acts as a memory scrapbook.
This video sketch shows three scenarios of use and demonstrates possible interactions with the music player.
Bookmarked Music Player
Description
The Bookmarked Music Player is the result of a project from John Zimmerman’s interaction design course at Carnegie Mellon. Our team explored tangible interaction in the design of a music player for senior citizens.
We began by research the music needs of seniors through directed storytelling and interviews. Based on what we learned we developed rough concepts and validated these with other seniors. The original research and feedback from the validation session informed our final design.
The end result is a video sketch showing how the music player fits in with the lives of seniors. Three scenarios are shown: playing a single album, setting up a playlist, and associating music to memories.
Team Members: Simon King (Interaction Design), Emily Tong (Design), Jules Henry (Mechanical Engineering)