Tabraille - Design Thesis
Interaction Design/Product Design
Interaction Design/Product Design
Interaction Design/Product Design
Interaction Design/Product Design
Interaction Design/Product Design
Interaction Design/Product Design
Interaction Design/Product Design
Interaction Design/Product Design
Interaction Design/Product Design
Packaging Design, Print/Brand Communications
Designer(s)
Riley Cousineau
Duration
31 Weeks
Recognitions
Product Reveal Motion Graphic
This motion graphic showcases a wide range of deliverables completed for the Tabraille project. The goal of this product design was to provide a solution to the problem of inaccessibility in musical education for those who are blind. With a background in guitar, I decided to focus the product on making guitar tabs adaptable to Braille. This video walks the viewer through all of the features the product has to offer, demonstrating how a user can convert any guitar tab to Braille to teach someone who is blind! It shows deliverables such as the brand identity, the 3D model, and the mobile application, among others, in a way that favours the understanding of the product's usability.
Product 3D Model
This deliverable completed for the Tabraille project was extremely important to the development process as this was my chance to bring my visualization of the product to life. From my design, I wanted the product to use a long board with six holes as the base for numbered/Braille tiles to fit in and read as a guitar tab. The tiles would feature a large textured surface in the shape of a number–this texture represents the string name, (for the student that is blind) and the number represents the fret. (for the sighted teacher) The tile also has braille in the bottom corner indicating the fret number to the student that is blind, and also has the string letter (E,A,D,G,B,e) in the other corner for the teacher to read. The product was developed to be useful to both the teacher and the student at the same time. A total of 138 individual tiles were created, as there are 23 fret multiplied by 6 string combinations. This model was widely used throughout the other deliverables as supportive imagery.
Product Package Design
The package design for Tabraille was the most challenging deliverable in the process of the project. The development began by sketching out a die-line and some 3d concepts to get a sense of the package's overall look. I wanted the box to have a thin magnetic flap that folds over the box and uses the brand identity to its advantage, making the logo fold over the cascading guitar geometry. After creating a die-line, I returned to the 3D modelling software and began modelling the box. It was a rectangular shape with a thick material. On the inside, it had a platform to hold the board along with 6 divided sections to hold smaller boxes that contain stacks of tiles–corresponding to the appropriate tile colour. The graphics were then mapped to the model, and renders were captured of the final product.
Mobile Application
For the final Tabraille deliverable, I created a supporting mobile application to assist the user (the sighted teacher) with locating tabs for any song they wish to teach their student. It offers a search function that pulls from online databases to provide a simple, and user friendly experience for all audiences. It allows the user to save songs they are working on, browse popular songs, and see info about how to use the product. The app retains the brand identity and uses the same colours, along with the guitar geometry as a header that features the logo. I wanted to keep the interface simple and easy to use, so the different elements are clearly positioned within their own modules with minimal screens to reduce flow confusion. I wanted to add an information section due to initial confusion that can come with a music-accessibility product. I also included a feature that converts the first bar of a given tab to an image example of the corresponding tile setup within the Tabraille board. Finally, I created an animation that provides a look into the user-flow of the app and demonstrates a typical experience while using the app. View the user-flow animation here: https://vimeo.com/537963692
