Many of the users had considered the product to be a temporary back accessory that wasn’t required at all times. The rest of the group would observe from a distance taking notes on general cues of discomfort, behaviour, body language, etc.Īfter user validation and detailed feedback, it was apparent that we needed to either tackle a different aspect of ergonomics or dwell within a new space. I would take responsibility in guiding the user through some basic musical notes and getting them familiar with basic compositions while another person would lead the interview questions. With our interview sessions, we would have two members of the group (someone & myself) to help facilitate and lead the interview with a user.
Since we primarily interviewed university students, our rapport was based on the generic university experience which led to a richer conversation. The interview started with user-specific questions to develop rapport and to ease the user into more product-specific questions that aligned with the qualitative data we wanted to achieve. Our interviews were designed to understand user behaviour and their general experience with the prototype through a format relative to the user’s experience. We developed a low-fidelity prototype for which we conducted user testing among a sample group of individuals with varying experience playing the tabla. User Personas and Initial Interviewing can be found here User Testing Below are some of the methods and processes we documented for our deliverables: We called it Catharsis (the process of relief through musical expression) but little did we know that it’d be a pain for us. With that, our final solution was not the verdict of creative & unique ideas which definitely impacted the end product from all the groupthinking. Being in such a niche idea space and having done prior solution-oriented discussions, many of the solutions we developed were very similar in concept and in respect to the pre-conditioned ideas we had kept in mind. This involved many core design methods such as crazy 8’s, heatmap voting, lightning demos and developing a storyboard. IdeationĪs part of our course, we used the Google Sprint framework/process to rapidly develop a product that we could quickly validate among users. After doing some light preliminary research, we decided to tackle the issue of ergonomics with a large focus on beginner level players who were adapting to the style of play and physical positioning of their body on the ground. None of us were truly maestros at playing the tabla but did however experience our own cases of bad posture and discomfort at times while trying out the tabla. We were stuck in the idea that the tabla was an instrument that could not be altered due to its ancient history. Having been largely associated with the South Asian culture, we believed that we truly “knew” the instrument and the pains that are associated with the product. “man playing a drum instrument” by Judy Fong on Unsplash Initial Idea: As we all have had experienced the art of the tabla, directly and indirectly, we believed it was an area we could focus on as we also already knew the product quite well. While there are different types based on size, the tabla has kept its form and sound intact for hundreds of years. While other instruments have had their fair share of reiterations and enhancements (pianos, guitars, etc.), the tabla has been an instrument that has remained relatively untouched from its inception. This instrument could be whatever we please as long as we rightfully enhance the experience of the instrument to our targeted group of users.īeing a group of primarily South Asians, we leaned towards an Indian classical instrument called the tabla. Overview:įor our 3rd-year design course, we were given a term-long project focused on developing and improving a current musical instrument. While this project was a lengthy one, I’ve tried to encapsulate our experience within this short narrative-like article. The concepts and design strategies I was able to learn from our decisions throughout “ the process” are priceless and something I can apply to future products. Yet, I still wouldn’t consider it one since the real takeaway from it all was, as Joel Embiid largely refers to, “ the process”. I’d like to share a project that some friends and I had recently done for our design course this past summer. A user-centered design project that narrates the fundamentals of iterative design and sprint design processes.
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