Project Goals The focus of this project will be to design methods of interaction that support the emotional connection between the user and the music within the given context. An older aesthetic The teens we interviewed had fashionable ambitions. Many were highly attuned to trends in fashion, music, and shopping. This suggested that a device targeting them would need to be very fashion-conscious. Early design concepts targeted teenage girls directly, using a "Claire's" aesthetic, with highly visible customizations and loud (garish) colors. But concept validation revealed girls connected more tangibly and universally to an older aesthetic, more aligned with "Cosmo." Our design would target that desire in teenage girls to be grown-up girls. Feminine shape Our prototypes employed a sleek, feminine and graceful yin-yang form. Teens responded very positively to the forms, speaking openly glowingly about it. They all immediately recognized the shape, and correctly named it as the yin-yang. Device or jewelry? Our teens responded most positively to very small prototypes. They also expressed a desire for flexible device, one that could be worn both as necklace, bracelet, around the hip, or on the pocketbook. We also received significant feedback suggesting that buttons were an ugly implementation necessity from a bygone time. This data suggested that the device appear more like jewelry than an electronic appliance. A jewelry metaphor suggested a minimal or invisible screen. The device's screen is the same color as the device when not held, maintaining the appearance of one continuous surface. When held, capacitive sensors detect touch and initiate the screen's display mode. Squeezable interaction The flexible, wearable device did not strongly afford a single way of holding it. A jewelry design metaphor drove us towards an interface without buttons. This would both remove any visual clutter and enhance the beauty of the device. Squeeze graffiti (or Squiffiti ®) enables almost entirely 1-handed interaction. Teen girls can interact with the device without needing to refer to a screen. Squiffiti ® also greatly enhances an emotional connection to the device. Teen girls strongly accepted the squeeable interaction. Sharing and social currency Teenage girls are very social creatures. One of their principal (pre-) occupations is each other. Any device that seeks to enhance their emotional experience will need to account for these social dimensions of their existence. The Squeeze Drop ® allows for this social connection be enabling girls to share two important elements: (1) playlists, and (2) current "station." By uniting their Squeeze Drop ® with another unit to create a continuous whole, girls can enable their friends to access their playlists, as well as detect what they are currently listening to. The sharing interaction creates a direct emotional connection to music (1) by creating a direct emotional interaction with their peers and (2) enabling teen girls to breach distance, allowing teen girls to hear what their friends are currently listening to, and (3) rewarding "tastemakers" with digital social validation through the ability to introduce their friends to music. Yin-yang matching interaction Our research showed that teen girls extremely enjoyed the action of sharing, and repeated it continuously (in excess of our requests) during concept validation. The sharing interaction is enhanced by a pleasing temporary melding of Squeeze Drop ® colors. If a unit displaying yellow is matched with a unit displaying blue, the units both turn green for a small interval of time (~3 seconds). This positive feedback rewards repeated physical interaction. |