Band: A social music player for children in middle childhood

Band: A social music player for children in middle childhood

Overkamp, T.W.J.

Mulder, I.J. (mentor)
Gielen, M.A. (mentor)
Kock, J. (mentor)

Industrial Design Engineering

Industrial Design

Master of Science Design for Interaction

2012-09-17

Band is a product service system which has a physical music player and an online music service as core components. It allows children to listen to music alone and with friends. The songs are provided by a streaming music service and can be shared online and offline. When children are about 8 years old, they enter a new phase in their development, the so-called operational phase. This phase is characterised by a number of changes. Firstly, friendships and relationships with peers begin to take a more prominent place. Belonging to a group becomes more important. Secondly, children start to share objects and stories with their peers. The fact that their senses mature and their increased focus on detail help them to assess the value of these objects and the equality of these exchanges. Another effect of the increased focus on detail is the desire of children to have more complex and real toys. Finally, the formation of their personality becomes more concrete when children are between 8 and 10 years of age. Children form and can communicate their preferences. Their music preference changes rapidly and is often decided upon within a group of friends. Current music players do not offer a combination of a detailed, mature appearance and the possibility to stay in contact with friends, aspects that are important to children between 8 and 10. The Band ecosystem takes these elements of child development and product desires into account and allows children to listen to music both alone and with friends. Firstly a player that can be used to by children to play their favorite music at home. The songs that are played are the songs they have stored in their account of the music service. Apart from listening to songs on their own, they can invite friends who also have Band to listen along. Secondly a music service where children can search for new songs, manage their current songs and see what music their friends have in their account. Behind this service is a database of streaming music. In order to be able to see what music friends have in their account of the service, children can exchange avatars that come with the player. This exchange connects the accounts online. Avatars can only be exchanged when children meet in person, which limits the risk of children connecting to strangers. Finally, children can also share music using so-called mixtapes. On these mixtapes they can store links to songs in the database of streaming music. By exchanging these mixtapes they can introduce new songs to their friends.

product service system
social
music
children

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:a4c6d38b-e040-4479-9b63-2b50b2d67c77

Campus only

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2012 Overkamp, T.W.J.