Sydney University

Noteorious

"How do we make music production a more accessible profession
for beginners?"

Overview

"Noteorious" is an augmented MIDI controller concept that offers a different type of interaction for music production through NIME (New Interfaces for musical expression). The product provides a gamified entry point for newcomers to the music production industry, lessening the learning curve of production software such as Ableton and how to create expressive music. Taking elements from preconceived affordances from gaming controllers and piano layouts, Notorious limits the cognitive load bestowed upon users whilst providing an engaging user experience through gamification. 

Approach

A strict adherence to the double diamond design approach was made as a basis for the design project, combining both convergent and divergent thinking to produce an applicable solution. This allowed the team to dive deep into investigating barriers to entry for aspiring music producers, develop out of the box ideas to such pain-points, and bring about a product that places the user first.

Timeframe

4 months

My Responsibilities

Rapid Prototyping

Iterating and building on top of prototypes to achieve a quality product

Product development

Ensuring prototype functions as expected

User testing

generating basic structure and layout

UX research

So much character in this one.

Team

Interaction designer

Interaction designer

Interaction designer

Discover.

At the beginning of the project, we focused on understanding both the user and the problem space to identify if in this case, learning about music production did have a problem. From the user's point of view, there were critical obstacles along the path to becoming a music producer from the get-go.

The team found breakthroughs through interviews combined with ethnographic analysis. We used these methods to understand the attitudinal response of target users towards learning music production when viable products have been tested and preconceived throughs surrounding the matter. Both methods are qualitative in nature generating data around the 'why' of a problem rather than focusing on how large it is. Answers such as "There are too many tools and technical words that I dont understand" and "trying out different music workstations can be daunting" showed themes of a negative first impression when navigating software music production tools.

At the beginning of the project, we focused on understanding both the user and the problem space to identify if in this case, learning about music production did have a problem. From the user's point of view, there were critical obstacles along the path to becoming a music producer from the get-go.

The team found breakthroughs through interviews combined with ethnographic analysis. We used these methods to understand the attitudinal response of target users towards learning music production when viable products have been tested and preconceived throughs surrounding the matter. Both methods are qualitative in nature generating data around the 'why' of a problem rather than focusing on how large it is. Answers such as "There are too many tools and technical words that I dont understand" and "trying out different music workstations can be daunting" showed themes of a negative first impression when navigating software music production tools.

At the beginning of the project, we focused on understanding both the user and the problem space to identify if in this case, learning about music production did have a problem. From the user's point of view, there were critical obstacles along the path to becoming a music producer from the get-go.

The team found breakthroughs through interviews combined with ethnographic analysis. We used these methods to understand the attitudinal response of target users towards learning music production when viable products have been tested and preconceived throughs surrounding the matter. Both methods are qualitative in nature generating data around the 'why' of a problem rather than focusing on how large it is. Answers such as "There are too many tools and technical words that I dont understand" and "trying out different music workstations can be daunting" showed themes of a negative first impression when navigating software music production tools.

Define.

This phase of the project involved using what research we had found in the previous step (discover) and analysing what had been found into key themes and insights to narrow down the problem area. This was completed through the affinity diagramming method. This method was used to uncover what causes of concern consistently came up from a broad range of interviewees and forum responses with affinity diagramming being a straightforward method to process data that is qualitative in nature. We uncovered four primary themes that had a significant impact on an inspiring music producer.




Key insights


- The majority of aspiring music producers were in their teens to early 20's
- predominately learn by experimenting
- The significant learning curve to both software and hardware.
- Hardware for music production is expensive
- Most begin experimenting with FL studio or Ableton

Develop.

With deliverables demanding dor a product that is physical in nature, the team planned on supplementing studio workstations to lessen the pain points experienced when operating such systems. Our team began the ideation phase, where we came up with a criteria for success for creating music…

  • High level of engagement

  • Physical in nature (Pre-existing requirements of the project)

  • Intuitive

  • Interoperability with music workstations

  • Low cognitive load

After refining and discussing several plausible solutions, we were left with three concepts to tackle the problem space. Employing the harris profile decision matrix to exaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each concept provided us with an objective view of which most fulfilss the criteria for success.

Users need a model that reflects and supports their real-world interactions. As a result, the interaction model was created for the product to better clarify the mental models of the target user. The interaction mofel would also map out how the user would interact with the product, including the reasoning for specific outcomes. The interaction model can be found below.

Deliver.

Iteration 1

We began with a basic 3D printed box in order to emulate what a midi controller would do. This proof of concept would be monitored through a wizard of oz style prototype.

We then began to ask 5 participants who had an interest and had varying experience in music production to complete two tasks in the form of user testing…

1. Connect Noteorious to Ableton
2. Play a song with Noteorious

Connecting and playing a song were not found to be a problem and as such we began looking at other aspects of product iteration

Iteration 2 (final)

When engaging and interacting with the first iteration, we found three primary pain points:

1. Limited physical movement due to USB cable
2. Limited ability to play different notes due to only having 2 buttons
3. Comfortability issues when handling the controller

The sequencing of MIDI controllers (up & down), integrated battery power, Bluetooth connectivity, and a different take on the casing were the core defining features from mid to high fidelity prototypes.

We agreed with using a game controller due to the ergonomic comfort of existing products in one's hand, whilst drawing on the consensus that a younger demographic have been exposed to such devices.

Other projects

Opportunity board

Learn about hosting built for scale and reliability.

Explore

Communiteer platform

Learn how Framer can optimize your site for search engines.

Explore

Young changemakers

Get inspired by blogs, job openings, events and more.

Explore