A tangible music interface enhances interaction and selection, reviving the art of listening.
### Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes
- Tiles aims to enhance music listening experiences by providing a tangible interface that emphasizes album artwork and information. - The project addresses the lack of engagement in modern music technology by allowing users to interact with music as a process. - Experience prototyping and model making were integral parts of the design, exploring various interactions and refining the device's functionality. - The collaboration with the Product Design MFA contributed to the development of mechanical parts and video editing for the project.
1. Music Enthusiasts 2. Audio Engineers 3. Art and Design Students
Connecting with your music collection.
Problem
Modern music listening experiences often lack suspense. The black box present in modern technologies such as mobile phones abstract away what's going on behind the interface and don't require any process to interact with. Any song in the world is just one click away, no sonic feedback, no haptic feedback and flat visual feedback.
Solution
Tiles is an exploration of how a tangible interface could present music listening as the sophisticated process it was intended to be.
By mechanically moving the top down, music moves from the collection into the player and presents the user with album info and playback controls.
Navigating the music collection, queuing a song and increasing volume.
Our approach is a device which puts emphasis on the albums, their artworks and information. In contrast to music streaming apps, Tiles provokes a careful selection of music and elegant interactions to enjoy your favorite songs.
Highlights & Contribution
Experience Prototyping
Initially, I explored a tangible slider as a media controller, navigating through albums.
Then a rough mockup of the interactions with the device was made in ProtoPie. This allowed to quickly explore, experience and iterate interface ideas.
I created a physical experience prototype to try out the tangible interface in combination with the sounds and the graphical user interface.
A projector was used to show what the screens would display. The electronics communicate with ProtoPie through an Arduino.
Turn up the volume to hear the audio.
Model Making
This project was a collaboration with the Product Design MFA, the mockup bellow is mostly their work. I helped shaping the mechanical parts and did the video editting.
