Imagine being a singer who wants to practice to improve your skill. You live too far away from any private studios, so you decide to practice in your own home. Suddenly, you start feeling nervous knowing that your roommates might be able to hear you since you’re insecure about your voice. You decide to try anyways, but as you’re practicing, your roommate walks in, complaining that you are being too loud. This causes you to become embarrassed, so when you go back to practicing, you don’t sing at full volume, causing you to stunt your practice potential.
Name: Charlie
Age: 18
Occupation: University Student
Charlie is a freshman at his new University and decided to get a room in the dorms. He did choir in high school and wants to continue singing in college. It's an essential hobby in his life, and it's one he wants to improve in. After talking to a vocal coach, he was given some practice songs, but when trying to book a practice room, he noticed that they were already booked for the next 3 weeks.
Charlie's alternative is to practice at home, in the comfort of his dorm. The only issue is that he has a suite-mate, and the walls are very thin, allowing his singing to be heard by his suite-mate. Charlie struggles with anxiety and is insecure about his voice, so the quality of his practice time goes down if anyone else is listening to him.
Charlie is lacking privacy in his singing practice.
Charlie is uncomfortable with others hearing them sing.
Charlie wants to be comfortable when singing.
Charlie wants to be able to hear himself when singing.
Charlie wants to be able to sing his heart out.
Charlie needs... Whispr.
The market research and survey results helped solidify our understanding of customer aspirations and tensions that the team tried capturing in our user persona.
Other factors
User Experience
The users of the product will be singers of varying skill levels. The level of our sound dampening and comfortability will affect the direct response and experience that the users have with the product.
Business
As for the scope of the project, the team members are responsible for the prototyping of the product.
On a macro-scale, companies already involved in the industry catering to the needs of singers and musicians are the target producers. This product should be pitched to an existing vendor. There are many existing solutions for sound damping for musical applications, but there isn’t a dominant force in this market. Large audio/peripheral companies, such as Bose or Logitech, haven’t broken into this space yet. These companies already have extensive experience with microphones and audio quality/noise cancelling and would have excellent support networks. Our product would also allow them to break into this market, and would likely quickly grab a large share of it.
The buyers would primarily be individual singers looking for a way to practice on-the-go, and simply indulge in their favourite hobbies!
Social
Use of this product may decrease tensions between the user and their roommates, especially if the roommates do not appreciate hearing the singing when the singer is practising.
Ecosystem/ Environment
It's important to pay attention to the details of our product so it does not affect the environment and ecosystem. This may play a role in our material selection, so there won't be an issue during waste disposal and propagation of any bacterial infections.
Regulatory
Since it is a relatively unexplored field, there are not many government standards that the team could find.
Professional
The product is being designed as a deliverable towards the fulfilment of DESCI 501: Analytical Product Design class at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Personal Value
The team members are passionate about developing a project that would serve a local community and their needs. We all have had some exposure to music, in terms of professional training, active involvement with the singing community or simply, enjoying music as a hobby. This is a great motivational driver for this project.
Global
This design will benefit the overall global market because other companies can look into creating devices like this and even explore other avenues in sound-dampening devices.
Public Health and Welfare
In making this product, we must focus on using materials that will not only cause harm to the environment but also to the product's consumers. We will focus on using materials that are antimicrobial to ensure the growth of dangerous bacteria does not form. With this, we also will focus on making the product easy to clean, fully ensuring the safety of the customer. These actions will allow the user to practice their singing safely.
Cultural
When creating this device, we are emphasizing comfortability. By creating a universal design for almost any face shape, this device will be easily adaptable to any culture.