For my MSc graduation I took a dive into the world of sound design. Something I was unfamiliar with before in a professional sense yet had a lot of fascination for. During the project I have researched the complexities of sound design, specifically from the perspective of UX designers. As a result I have created a tool, for UX designers, to make sound design more accessible to them.
Keywords
Sound Design
UX/UI Design
Digital Interface
Design Research
CONTEXT
Even though sound is invisible to the human eye, its value in product design should not be overlooked. When done right, sound design can greatly enhance a product, however, designers often lack the needed tools and skills to integrate sound design in their process; specifically in collaborative design activities such as prototyping.
The lack of tools is just one side of the problem, on the other hand UX designers lack the vocabulary needed to communicate about sounds. Resulting in miscommunications when collaborating with professional sound designers. Timbreworld aims at bridging this semantic gap and providing the UX designers with appropriate tools for prototyping with sounds.
CONCEPT
Timbreworld is an interactive, tangible tool, created specifically to facilitate sound prototyping activities of UX designers. The goal of the Timbreworld is to provide its users with an environment where they can explore sound design functions in an accessible way as well as create their own sound prototypes (sonic sketches).
By integrating prototyping activities with sound in their process, designers can achieve a deeper understanding of the value of sound.Furthermore, creation of sonic sketches enables designers to create rapid sonic prototypes and integrate them with their other design activities, such as user tests.
Timbreworld is based on the words4sounds.speak lexicon which is an academically validated set of descriptors often used by both designers and sound designers.
The Timbreworld consists of a projection in combination with a set of tangible objects and a webcam (sensor). Through the webcam, a machine learning algorithm recognizes the objects and allows for the user to manipulate the projected information by moving objects on top of the projection.
The information that gets displayed when using the Timbreworld is a clear overview of all the functions that can be accessed. This overview makes it possible for the user to explore while also feeling like they are able to access the functions at any moment. The amount of editing possibilities is limited, to fit the context of UX design, resulting in a straightforward and intuitive user flow.
DIGITAL INTERFACE
To facilitate the user testing sessions I have created an interactive digital prototype. The prototype runs on P5.js and Ableton. With the prototype participants were able to explore sound design in an accessible way, this provided me with invaluable insights and allowed me to properly evaluate my concept.
This screenshot shows the user interface I have created to facilitate the user tests.
TRY IT OUT
Presentation Video 1 FA .mp4RESEARCH METHODS
Throughout the project I have used various design research methods. The project offered a lot of room for collaboration with the user as well as flexibility in how this collaboartion could be achieved. I took this chance to facilitate engaging and insightful user testing and co-creation sessions.
Creation of various multi-media prototypes to create tangible representations of the research.
User tests with different participants as well as co-creation sessions.
Creation of Foley Boxes to explore the possibilities within rapid sound design (sonic sketching).
Image: The iterative process of sound design (sonic sketching) from the perspective of UX design.