Take a moment to clarify your user-needs. Design to those.
Based on your original problem definition, I don’t think it has much to do with what you’ve designed.
People don’t know what dB’s are or care. They don’t want to “learn more.” They don’t care about how much time they’ve been listening, and they certainly don’t want to have to activate a timer (especially one that appears to have no purpose?) They simply want to know if what they’re listening to is safe and how to make appropriate changes. All that other stuff should be handled by the system automatically, and presented in a neat graphical way. That is the very essence of good Interaction Design.
I think part of my problem is that I’m designing based upon the 8GB iPod Touch I have that can’t handle all the multitasking features Apple added recently in their new OS, but if I include some of those new features, I think that it opens things up a bit. On my current iPod if the window is minimized the app is closed, but I think I’ll move towards a more persistent app that runs in the background. I’m toying with the idea of a “strain gauge” that sits next to a color coded volume bar. Strain is built up as you listen to sounds that could damage your hearing over prolonged periods and fills up faster when the audio is louder. If the gauge fills up a notification will pop up telling you to turn your music down to prevent permanent hearing loss. I think that this is a lot simpler and would work better. I’ll revise my pages and post them tomorrow.
I agree with some of the comments, simplify the output by icons that anyone can pick up easily without having to know what dB are at safe level, etc.
One technical feedback; different headphones comes out with volume output. My cheapo stock headphone at full level is about the same volume as my aftermarket headphones at 70% the volume. Maybe have different settings depending on which headphone make/model is used??? Or create a built-in tester by placing the headphones next to the built-in mic, and it will auto-configure settings based on result??
This is perfect! Simple and effective (on paper anyway). You could keep the educational parts in there if you wanted to, so that the user could learn more but keep them tucked away maybe with a simple “Learn More” button. Maybe you could just build that info around a website to link to for more info, rather than making the App keep all that data.
Here is the new and improved version of my app concept. Thanks to everyone who has given me suggestions so far. I might need to break it into two pages as the one might be a little crowded, but other than that I think that it is much improved. Do you guys think that there are any other concerns I need to address?
Nice work, much improved and the app makes sense! If you don’t know about this, here is a nice PS file with iphone app assets you can use to properly mock this up like a pro:
Yeah, you need to at least be able to mock it up in flash/powerpoint/as an interactive pdf. These programs are simple and straightforward. If you were a graphic designer doing the design for an app, you would be required to prototype it this way at the very least.
As an Industrial designer, it’s about the experience you are designing I assume, so I can’t see not wanting to take it to something that makes the buttons work and at least pop between screens. You can mock it up without doing any programing or development. Even some really simple html would do it.
Thank you everyone for the tips along the way, and thanks for the link bennybtl. I will put it to good use. What program or method do you guys think is the industry standard for creating the simple animations required for this app?
How about comparing the dB levels to real life sounds so people can realte to them ie. whisper, v8, jet fighter. And maybe have pics to make the app visuals more juicy
How about comparing the dB levels to real life sounds so people can realte to them ie. whisper, v8, jet fighter. And maybe have pics to make the app visuals more juicy
