Music and Experiential Design
Tuesday, March 8th, 2011
One of my side projects of late is an iPhone app for kids that encourages and rewards experimenting with food and food combinations. We are reluctant to call it a cooking app, because it is more related to exploring, finding, and experimenting in ways kids may not be able to do in real life. The team includes myself as the Lead Interaction Designer, Jesse Lowe as the Lead Programmer, and Laurie Filiak as the Visual Designer. Just a few days ago we noticed we had not accounted for a huge part of the experience; the soundtrack. This is a new territory for me, including a Composer as part of the team. Audio for the most part is perceived as annoying on websites, and would be an experience nightmare if it was part of software design. Even for an exhibit design an audio soundtrack is rarely considered. But when it comes to handheld devices with the goal of creating a complete experience, music jumps way up in priority. Music becomes even more important when your audience is kids.
Children have the amazing knack for remembering songs, even when exposed to them in utero. Back when I was pregnant the first time around, musicologist (and my future colleague) Gideon D’Arcangelo interviewed me for his radio show Listening In: The Delivery Room . This interview explores the role of music in the delivery room, but we also spoke about playing music for babies in utero. I confessed that I exposed my daughter to more Ratatat and Blondie than she could probably stand (which serendipitously led to me spotting Deborah Harry more than once in those 9 months). Four years later, she still has an inclination for both musicians.
In short, my point is that audio plays a huge role in kids entertainment. Something that Disney, Music Together, and Yo Gabba Gabba are both well aware of, in their own very different ways. And this project has encouraged me to think about the role of music in the overall experience. I have been asking myself and talking with our composer Austin King about how the music will complement the visual and interaction design, and how sound in general help give the player directive. I found myself having to go back through the wireframes and think about the final app not in terms of user flow, but musical flow and composition.
We are still a month out from deployment, but will certainly post more about the project once everything is complete.
