Knome
Mobile App and Physical Product
Designed an IoT system as a sole designer to make the piano learning process more enjoyable for all the stakeholders
Skills:
+ Design Research
+ UX Design
+ Interaction Design
+ Product Design
Project Overview
Learning piano is not an easy task for young kids. To understand the whole picture, I conducted design research to develop insights into the problems the kids, the parents, and the piano teachers faced. In the end, I designed a smart physical metronome and two apps to make the learning process more enjoyable for all the stakeholders.
Research
RESEARCH METHODS
When young kids learn the piano, the parents and piano teachers are involved in the process a lot. To fully understand the situation and find the real problems, I interviewed all the stakeholders: young kids, parents, and piano teachers.
I conducted phone interviews for distant users, but if it was allowed, I went to users' homes or music schools to see the environment where they practiced piano or taught piano.
Interviewing elementary school kids
Interviewing elementary school kid and her mom at their home
The classroom where a teacher taught piano
What tools a kid usually used while practicing at home
SYNTHESIS
Different stakeholders had different needs. Integrating the information into the same system was not easy at the beginning. Therefore, I created frameworks to help me visualize insights, clarify questions, and understand the whole picture.
I put important information that I learned from different stakeholders together to help me see the whole picture
The most important interaction between the stakeholders
Different learning stages of learning piano. The blue curve was what I imagined in the world where my final design existed.
KEY FINDINGS
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The learning journey's real challenge starts when the kids are older and can't be motivated by stickers and snacks. It's also the time when the kids give up on music easily.
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Different stakeholders have different needs and different pain points.
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Relationships and interaction between stakeholders play considerable roles in determining each stakeholder's level of satisfaction throughout the learning journey.
PAIN POINTS
KIDS
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It's boring to practice alone
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Teachers are not interesting
GOALS
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Having fun
PARENTS
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Seeing the kids struggling but don't know how to provide help
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The kids don't want to practice and don't make progress on playing piano
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The kids being happy and safe while learning piano
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Helping the kids overcome difficulties while learning piano
TEACHERS
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The kids don't making progress on playing piano and don't practice
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The kids don't like piano
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Having a hard time communicating with the parents
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Seeing the kids having fun with piano playing
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Seeing the kids grow
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Being respected
Design Directions
After understanding the problem, I decided to design different products for different stakeholders since each of their pain points and needs were different.
However, the level of their satisfaction heavily depended on each other, so it was also important to create products that can facilitate their interaction and enhance their relationship.
I also decided to focus on solving problems around piano practicing when designing solutions for the below 4 reasons:
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For the young kids, practicing was the biggest pain points.
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For the parents, practicing was the time when they could help the kids on the learning journey.
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For the teachers, the information outside the class was difficult to get.
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There were few modern products that facilitate young kids to practice piano, which meant that my product would have excellent competitive advantage.
Design Goals
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Overall, build a system to facilitate the interaction between stakeholders.
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For the kids:
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Build a physical product. Interacting with physical items is helpful for brain development at young ages, and I don't want young kids to spend too much time playing with screens.
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Design a product that brings joy and happiness to the kids while practicing.
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For the parents
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Design an app since it would be easy to access at anywhere and anytime.
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Design a product that could help the parents understand more about what the kids were learning and what was happening on the learning journey.
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For the teachers
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Design an app since it would be easy to access at anywhere and anytime.
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Design a product that enables the teachers to understand more about the kids outside the classes. The teachers could adjust teaching during classes and help the kids succeed on the learning journey more easily.
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This product needs to be able to facilitate communication with the parents.
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Ideas & User Feedback
I held brainstorming sessions to generate a wide range of ideas.
For digital product ideas, I generated paper prototypes and asked the users to interact with them while talking out loud.
For physical product ideas, I sketched the selected ideas with brief notes to help users understand them.
The original ideas from the brainstorming sessions
I used these low-fidelity methods to reduce prototyping time because I wanted to get user feedback most of the time, which was the most important thing at this stage.
The final physical solution
Mobile Apps Design: For the Parents and Teachers
FEATURES & SITEMAPS
I put down all the features I got from the brainstorming session on post-it notes, and selected the ones that were most important and relevant to my design goals. Next, I started to arrange the post-it notes to create the sitemaps.
The final sitemap of teacher's app
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The final sitemap of parent's app
DESIGN FOCUS: PRACTICE DATA
With the project timeline, it'll be difficult to complete the whole apps. Therefore, I decided to focus on the design of the flows related to the Practice Data features (the oranges boxes on the sitemaps above).
LO-FI DESIGN
Some sketches for quick concept generation of the app screens
Wireframes for the apps
COLOR CHOICES
Although Knome was not only for young kids, they were whom Knome wanted to help in the end. To represent that and help all the users keep this in mind, the color scheme should be playful and fun.
Also, people usually associate early music education with female teachers and mothers. However, it is a stereotype and there are lots of male teachers and fathers who will be the users of Knome. The color scheme should also represent that.
I avoided colors usually associated with feminine such as pink and used a colorful scheme to give the UI a joyful look.
FINAL DESIGN
Home Screen of the Teacher's App
One of the Students' Main Screen
For Both the Piano Teachers and Parents
Parents and teachers can track the practice record sent from George, the physical metronome. This data can be a useful diagnostic tool. If the kid did not perform well during class, the teacher could easily clarify if it was because the kid did not practice or if the practice method was wrong.
Practice Record Screen
The average time the student practices every day for the past 7 days. The color of the number represents how much the student practice compared to the time asked by the teacher.
The student practices as much as the teacher asked.
The student practices a little compared to what the teacher asked.
PROTOTYPE: INTERACT WITH IT!
Physical Product Design: For the Kids
The Interaction Design in Physical Product: Facial Expressions
The physical solution was a smart metronome called George. George was a metronome with a LED display that could give feedback to the kids with facial expressions.
I generated different use scenarios and used the feedback George gave to make the interaction fun, interesting, and motivated.
Interaction flow and the reference for facial expression design
The Interaction Design in Physical Product: Metronome Controller
I wanted the interaction to be intuitive and simple for the users, so I generated a group of very different concepts for the controller design and tested it with users. The concepts were at different locations on George, and the interactions were all different as well.
Ideas for controller design
Low-fidelity, "Working" Prototypes: wheel, slider, hat as a knob (the users could actually scroll the wheel and move the slider to "feel" the design)
Testing with different facial expression designs
George must be aesthetically appealing to the users, so I tested different materials to find the best appearance
The semi-assembled prototype
GEORGE: THE PHYSICAL METRONOME FOR THE KIDS
Main features of George
Sleeping mode
Wakes up when people are passing by
If the kid hasn't practiced piano for a couple of days, the facial expressions start to change
George "listens" to the music when the kid is practicing
When the kid pushes the button to turn the metronome on, the tie starts to swing with a ticking sound
Rotate the switch to change the beat
Progress bar: shows how long the kid has been practicing this day.
Progress bar: show how long the kid has been practicing this day. If the teacher asked the kid to practice for 20 minutes every day, and the kid practices for 20 minutes today, all of the bar will light up
If the kid practiced more than the teacher expected, the face becomes a firework show!
Knome