SLAP
A UX Project
My Role:
UX/UI
Duration:
UX/UI
Researcher
Tools:
Sketch
Illustrayor
Photoshop
What is SLAP
SLAP is a wearable device application that can help users to read music sheets smoothly while playing their instruments. It can reduce the number of times the musician's hands leave the instrument, bringing a new experience of playing and practicing.
01
Frictions: When people are playing instruments
1.1 Turning pages will interrupt when playing an instrument.
More and more people use electronic products to replace traditional paper sheet to play or practice instruments, but when people want to go to the next page, their performance will be interrupted by pressing the button or sliding the screen causing the music to loose its smoothness.
1.2 It is difficult to find a sense of rhythm when people play an instrument.
Rhythm is one of the indispensable factors in playing a musical instrument. The traditional metronome expresses the beat by making a sound. When people's instruments and the metronome sound together, it is difficult to follow the rhythm to play the instrument. It has become a hindrance to many people that have started to develop good playing habits.
1.3 Instrument tuning is a troublesome thing
Tuning is an essential task before playing an instrument is also a troublesome thing. First, you need to turn on the tuner and then clip it in the visible position. People need to look at the device while tuning.
02
Solution Thinking
2.1 Design Goal
I want to design a wearable device application that can help the user to play music smoothly and also can support the user to tune the instrument. Focus on reducing the time of the user’s hands leaves the guitar.
2.2 How to Solve the problem
1. Use wireable device control the computer software.
2. Use the vibration to remind the rhythms to the user.
3 Reduce unnecessary adjustment preparation.
4 User-friendly tuning in application.
03
Who Will Use Slap
More and more people use electronic devices to read music scores. Using electronic devices makes it easier for people to download and collect music scores. With this trending, I defined the target audience as follows:
1.Primary - Intermediate guitarist
People who love music and keep play guitar regularly.
"I want to practice music more consistently.”
“I can play the new music I have learned."
2.Secondary - Beginner guitarist
Beginner players start to learn to play guitar and practice their basic skills.
“Tunning guitar is a really annoying thing.“
"How can I effectively improve my skills?"
04
Personas
05
IA Map & User Flow
5.1 IA Map
06
Wireframe
07
Why Slap is Unique
7.1 How to use SLAP
7.1.1 OnBroading Tutorial
Follow the video to learn how to use SLAP
When the user first enters the app, The tutorial shows how to wear SLAP. The user can wear the watch while playing the guitar and can directly see the information displayed on the screen.
7.2 Playing mode - Metronome
In the first version, most of the users think the rhythm is a big part of playing music. When they wear an iwatch to play guitars, they said:" It’s uncomfortable to see the screen, the angle is uncomfortable.” After the user test, I added a rotation function to adjust the screen.
Vibration keeps the rhythm for the user
The user can set the desired beat and speed before playing. The strength of each beat helps the user to play by means of vibration.
Speed Setup
Rotate the lock button to control the speed.
The rotation setup helps the user easy to monitor the screen
Setting
Select whether to rotate in the settings
Play/Pause
7.2 Easy to turn the page by changing the angle of wrist
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
The hand does not levave the neck of the guitar, so playing is uninterrupted.
7.3 Tunner
Process
Done
Set the pitch
The user also sets the pitch by turning the lock button, and the setting is completed when the icon turns green.
7.3 Setting - Left-hand Preferrence
08
User Test and Iterations
I interviewed 8 people to help me test the first version of SLAP; My goal was to find any problems.
8.1.1 Playing mode - Metronome
The negative feedback from playing mode is the metronome is hard to follow the Rhythm. They said:” Rhythm is the foundation upon which music is made, I don’t know how to set the beat levels in the metronome.“ In version 2, I added three different levels on the metronome and also add three different colors to help the user directly to see the beat levels on screen.
Metronome V1.0
Metronome V2.0
Metronome V3.0
8.1.1 Setting - left-hand Mode
The most negative feedback from a tester who is left-handed user was, "If I play guitar with my left-handed, this product is hard to use.” I added a left-handed mode on the setting user that can switch it by clicking the button. In the last version of the project, the left-handed user felt comfortable using it.
Setting - Left-hand
Tunner - Left-hand
Playing mode - Left-hand
09
UI Design
10
Reference List
https://nationalguitaracademy.com/how-to-play-acoustic-guitar/https://www.pexels.com/photo/grayscale-photo-of-man-playing-electric-guitar-167489/