Task code Project: DC126

Project Name: See the music

Project Introduction

Many commercial music players are very "black-boxish" (even when they are white). They are non-expressive boxes with non-expressive buttons. Consider the Apple iPod. It's a white box with a screen and a rotary disk. It is a beautiful object, beautiful according to the Ulm school of design. It expresses a sort of 1930's elegance. Is this the future of consumer product design? or the past?

Project and Objectives

If these players have to become more expressive, what should they express? And by what means could they make clear how to operate them. In this project you are asked to design a MP3 player that expresses a certain music style.

Gather knowledge and get a feeling on:

• how listening to music influences vision. Look at synaesthesia.Try it out.
• how objects express meaning. Look at semantics. Look at existing players and try them out. Where do things go wrong?
• how buttons make clear to the user how to use them. Look at semiotics. Look at affordances. Again, look at existing buttons.
• how people experience products. Look at emotion and design Try it out for with different products.

Research technology innovation

• what are the newest trends in MP3 (MP4?) technology?
• what about portable technology?
• what about new materials?
• what about the combination of the above in wearables?
• how do people interact with products?

Deliverables

You are to design individually an MP3 music player. Follow this procedure:

• the knowledge gathering and research is done by the team.
• each member of the team choses one of the following music styles (each style has to be represented by one member of the group.
• the styles are classical/nederlands levenslied/ nu-metal/ dance/ lounge/latin
• each member designs a player AND the interaction with it. The player expresses the music style. Make collages, sketches, models, based on the knowledge and experience gathered.
• the group does a little experiment. Let 5 people (not ID students) listen to the music styles and match style and players..

Deliverables are:

• research results
• scenario's illustrating the use of the player, how it interprets the music as a visual language, through form and operational interaction of the product.
• a working 3D model illustring the use of novel technology.
• demonstration of the novel operation of the device
• results of the experiment as a presentation, A4 report, recorded CD.

Client Information

Ir. Mirjam Peters is an industrial designer. For years she runs her own design company specialising in expressive packaging design. She is also an accomplished teacher at the Industrial Design department of the TU Delft.

List of Available Resources/Experts

Experts: Manfred Nitsch * Industrial Design Joep Frens * Experience Design/ model making Jiska De Wit * Interaction Design

Links

Lime (Living Memory): PhilipsDesignhttp://www.design.philips.com/lime/

http://www.iMusic.tue.nlhttp://www.sonystyle.com/home/scat.jsp?hierc=9687x9781x8647&scatid=8647

http://www.consumer.philips.com/global/b2c/ce/catalog/category.jhtml?divId=0&groupId=AUDIO&catId=

PORTABLEAUDIO_CAT: http://www.aiwa.com/default.asp?page=products&action=viewCat&cat=7

http://www.panasonic.com/consumer_electronics/portable_audio/default.asp

http://www.grundig.com

http://www.samsungelectronics.com/digital_audio_player/index.html