how do we improve the practice experience for Lindsay,
a professional musician with limited vision?
For a musician, free time is practice time. While many musicians in her orchestra pull out a new piece of sheet music and get started right away, Lindsay goes through an entire process to bring her music up to size before even touching her instrument. She then memorizes each piece before her next practice, as she cannot transport her magnification setup.
tempo cannot be neglected
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"I started off using a small magnifying glass to read the notes, and then rewrote them larger on a new sheet of paper." Lindsay, now cancer free, experiences impaired vision from the retinoblastoma she had as a child. To see comfortably, she needs sheet music that is 400 times larger than what is provided. She uses Music Zoom to give her the magnification she needs, but has no way to keep up with quick tempos. The app uses a foot pedal, which is not always responsive and difficult to transport. Physical magnifying sheets give her better control over tempo, but only half the magnification she needs. She deserves more than a trade-off. |
Lindsey shows us what 400% magnification looks like compared to the strongest available sheet magnifier.
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prioritizing outcome
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Our client was willing to put in whatever effort it took to be able to practice, so long that the outcome gives her better flexibility. She could easily increase magnification and adjust tempo through video.
During testing, Lindsay recorded one line at a time and then used a movie editor to piece the videos together. Shaky hands was the demise of handheld mockups. Velcro supports had similar effects to shaky hands. But even the shaky results excited Lindsay. We moved forward to find stability in the recording design. |
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a design that empowers, not impairs
Current magnifying devices look archaic. They target older populations, not young professionals. Lindsay's product needed to blend into the modern life she lives, leading to an acrylic design and a system that coordinated with all of her apple devices.
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final design
Record sheet music line by line using the physical device. Compile these videos in a movie making program, like iMovie. Play it back on any digital device, adjusting speed and magnification as needed. |
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An instructional video on how to use the device
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An example of a final playbach
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future steps
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Our client used Play it Bach and sent us feedback for a few months after the project. Since then, Music Zoom implemented a continuous scroll feature for users, which makes it much easier for our client to continue using her app. In the future, we would like to implement the design for an app that does all three steps of the Play it Bach process in one. The design concept, drawn by Sara Usry, is provided below.
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The Team: Jessica, Kristen, Sara
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