weekly questions

1. Who are you designing for?
2. What is their relationship to the collection?
3. Which content are you ‘interfacing’?
4. How does the ‘interface’ affect or influence the ‘user’?
5. What type of interaction is fitting for this?
6. What type of medium is fitting for this?
7. Which visual language (including typography) can be useful or fitting for this?
8. What are you trying to accomplish through the interface you want to design?

1. We are designing it for ca. 4 year old children and any adult (parents, grandparents, teachers, etc.) that want to play with them and are interested in music.
2. Since the interface is focusing on the simple beats and rhythms of songs from the Ninja Tune Records collection it is supposed to bring children closer to music. When children are ca. 4 years old they start perceiving rhythms which is why this game can be used to enhance this function or to push the children to recognize rhythms and clap along. While being an educational game it is also supposed to be a fun activity the child can do with an adult.
3. We are focusing on the rhythms of the songs however we are simplifying the rhythms. We were also quite inspired by the bright colors of the album cover so we are also including those into the card game.
4. Studies show that learning music from a young age has positive effects on the brain since the relationship between music and language processing in the brain is quite close. So this game is supposed to encourage a relationship with music. However this game is also just a fun way to spend time since at that age children start understanding rhythms and moving to the music.
5. The interaction of listening to a song and then clapping along a simplified version of the rhythm is very fitting for this since it gives children the opportunity to interact with the song but it is still simple enough for a child to do.
6. We are using ca. A5 playing cards since they can be touched and looked at by the children but they can also be taken everywhere. Since they are bigger than regular playing cards they won’t get lost as easily. We were also going to laminate the cards so they are are more sturdy and waterproof. But also rounding the edges so they don’t have sharp edges and can’t bend as easily. The playing cards are going to be all attached to each other by a ring so they are all together and stay that way but they can also be flipped easily.
7. Since we were also inspired by the bright colors of the album covers we are going to include a lot of bright colors to grab the children’s attention. Next to having an explanation text for adults on the cards we want everything to be as visual as possible so that the children can understand as much as possible by themselves. We also want to add some visualization of the music itself.
8. At the end the children should obviously have fun playing the game however the game should also open up the music world for children and get them excited to learn more and listen to more music. Next to the fun factor the game and overall the play with music has a positive effect on the brain (see question 4).

1. Who are you designing for?
2. What is their relationship to the collection?
3. Which content are you ‘interfacing’?
4. How does the ‘interface’ affect or influence the ‘user’?
5. What type of interaction is fitting for this?
6. What type of medium is fitting for this?
7. Which visual language (including typography) can be useful or fitting for this?
8. What are you trying to accomplish through the interface you want to design?

1. We are designing it for children from 2 until 7 years old and their close relatives (parents, grandparents, teachers, etc.) that want to play with them and are interested in music.
2. Since the interface is focusing on the simple beats and rhythms of songs from the Ninja Tune Records collection it is supposed to bring children closer to music. When children are ca. 4 years old they start recognize rhythms which is why this game can be used to enhance this ability and positively affect the brain functions. While being an educational game it is also supposed to be a fun activity the child can do with an adult or other children.
3. We are focusing on the rhythms of the songs however we are simplifying and slowing down the rhythms. We were also quite inspired by the bright colors of the album covers so we are also included those into the card game.
4. Studies show that learning music from a young age has positive affects on the brain since the relationship between music and language processing in the brain is quite close. So this game is supposed to encourage a relationship with music. However this game is also just a fun way to spend time since at that age children start understanding rhythms and moving to the music.
5. The interaction of listening to a song and then clapping along a simplified version of the rhythm is very fitting for this since it gives children the opportunity to interact with the song but it is still simple enough for a child to do.
6. We are using ca. A5 playing cards since they can be touched and looked at by the children but they can also be taken everywhere. Since they are bigger than regular playing cards they won’t get lost as easily. But also rounding the edges so they don’t have sharp edges and can’t bend as easily. The playing cards are going to be all together in a box.
7. Since we were also inspired by the bright colors of the album covers we are going to include a lot of bright colors to grab the children’s attention. Next to having an explanation text for adults on the cards we want everything to be as visual as possible so that the children can understand as much as possible by themselves. The visualization of the music is designed in a video. The video will have the same colors as the cards.
8. At the end the children should obviously have fun playing the game however the game should also open up the music world for children and get them excited to learn more and listen to more music. Next to the fun factor the game and overall the play with music has a positive effect on the brain (see question 4).