Opus

Learning a new instrument shouldn't stop at childhood. With Opus an inexpensive instrument is paired with clear lesson plans to help guide learners through the process of learning their new instrument and fitting it into their daily schedules.

Research

Our research uncovered key insights about adult learners: repetitive practices create boredom in beginners, traditional methods cause early struggles, and time and money constraints make it hard to practise consistently. Many find tutors the best way to learn music, yet most can't afford them.

Persona Design

Starting with personas gave us the insights we needed to create our prototype with our users in mind. In total we created three personas each with their own user journey map, showing how our solution improved our users' mood with every step of the process.

Prototyping

In order to get a feel for how users would interact with the product it was important to create a physical prototype. Consisting of a modified Arduino microcontroller and conductive paint, we were able to construct any instrument using affordable materials — for our initial phase we chose the guitar.

The Opus guitar is constructed of cost-effective and environmentally sustainable cardboard, with a bioplastic skeleton for improved durability. Its conductive paint creates a multi-dimensional touch surface, perfect for recreating the tactile feeling of the guitar.

3D Prototype

Utilising CAD software to create a dynamic prototype allowed the team to iterate quickly. As a bonus, when it was time for fabrication, we had dimensionally accurate schematics to help with construction.

Team

Dylan Jackson · Research, UI & Fabrication
Mara Healy · Research & UI
Daniel Kim · Brand, Visual and UI