nicolahumedesign:

Radio Project; Our brief for this project was to re think and re design the radio. The aim was to add value to a low cost radio and exlore different ways if using it. We also had to think about how an analogue radio was still relevant and usefull today when MP3 players and digital radio’s are so widely used. This was the first project for which we had to come up with 100 initial concepts and since then we have used this rapid idea generation technique for all our projects. To help generate idea we thought of insights about how people use radio’s. My favourite insight and the one which led to my final design was that; Radio’s let you hear new music that you wouldn’t otherwise know about or choose and so broaden your music taste. From this I realised that people may often hear a song they like but not know its name and so I designed a Radio to help the user to learn about new music.  Here’s the rational for my radio in case its too small to read in the pictures;   

The “Music Notes” radio helps people remember music they’ve heard by providing them with a physical print out of the song, artist and date they listened to it. 

Radio’s are used increasing less by young people who find them dated and would rather use mp3 players. One of the unique qualities of radio, that an mp3 player can not give, is that they let you hear music that you haven’t specifically chosen, but that you may like, thus broadening you’re musical knowledge and taste. It is clear that this quality is being over looked and so the Music Notes radio has been developed with the clear purpose of helping  you to learn about  new music. 

Not only does this radio teach you about new music, but it also allows you to remember and reminisce about old music from you’re past. One side of the radio opens to reveal a recess where the print outs can be stored and looked at later. This adds a lot of personal value to the radio as songs are often closely linked to a time or event in someone’s life and so could  prompt old memories.

The recent disembodiment of music has meant that listening to it is no longer a unique or ritual like process, as putting on a record or CD used to be. Many people miss this physical interaction. To bring back the interaction with music, the Music Notes radio has been designed to be hand held, none of the buttons are marked and there are playful ways of controlling it.  This should appeal to children’s inquisitive nature and encourage exploration. 

Although it was very challenging , making the radio was one of my favourite parts of the project. I learned a lot of skills such as how to add electrical components to a circuit board, how to use the wood turning lathe, how to work with engineering foam and how to join parts in dynamic ways to allow them to move and act as controls, volume dials and buttons.