TikTok
TikTok is the organic wearable metronome for individual practicing musicians.
Download TikTok from the Google Play Store today!
Instead of using the traditional clicking noise, Tiktok uses watch vibrations to help the user internalize the beat. The silent watch vibrations improve the user's rhythm without disturbing the music. TikTok provides a simple and intuitive watch interface for setting tempo (by scrolling) and measuring tempo (by tapping). TikTok's mobile app provides advanced settings for the watch metronome: customizing the metronome's glow color and switching between user-selected tempos.
BrainStorming Process
The initial idea for TikTok started with Design 1. Donald wanted to create a wearable product to help musicians. When Team MegaUkulele formed, we brainstormed many ideas with Post-its.
Since each member of our group is a musician, we decided to continue designing the wearable metronome from Design 1.
Intermediate and Final Design Sketches, Variations, and Ideas
Competitive Analysis
- Two of TikTok's competitors are ProMetronome for Apple Watch and the Soundbrenner Pulse. ProMetronome has a complex interface and depends on a clicking noise to keep the beat. The clicking noise is mechanical and disturbs the music. The SoundBrenner Pulse is meant for all musicians including performing musicians and requires an additional expensive hardware device. TikTok is the best choice for individual practicing musicians trying to improve their rhythm. TikTok's subtle vibrations help the user to feel the beat without disturbing the music. TikTok also has the simplest interface to allow ease of use while practicing.
Wireframes
Personas and Scenarios
George is a guitarist who wants to practice Fur Elise in his bedroom to a metronome at
100 beats per minute in preparation for his gig at a Kip’s Bar. He is wearing is moto360 and has
his smartphone is his pocket. Since he won’t need his smartphone for this practice session he’ll
leave it in his pocket. He opens up the TikTok app on his watch, which starts in the “pause
mode”. TikTok is currently set to 90 BPM, the speed he was practicing at earlier today. He does
not need to go to the settings page as he knows it’s already set to what he prefers, vibrate on
and sound off with no accented beat, from the last time he used TikTok. With a quick swipe
downward, he raises the BPM to 117. An animation that displays the BPM readout scrolling
upwards while he swipes communicates the movement’s effect. He then taps on the arrow
above the BPM readout 3 times to reach 120. He pressed the play button and practices away!
Jenny is a pianist who is trying to learn a really challenging song (Ode to Android
Programming in C Minor) for her school talent show. She’s practicing alone in a side classroom
at her school’s bandroom. The song changes from Adante (105 BPM) to Allegro (130 BPM)
halfway through! She is wearing her Moto 360 and her smartphone is where she always keeps
it-in her pocket. Before she sits down to play, she gets out her smartphone and sets the “Set
User Tempos” radial button-she’ll need the user-set tempos to switch in the middle of the song.
She taps the first user tempo and a vertical dial appears. She slides the tempo to 105. She does
the same for the second user tempo, setting it to 130, and leaves the third set to its current
value, 120, as she will only be using the first two tempos for this song. She puts her phone back
in her pocket as she won’t need it again while practicing. She then opens the TIkTok Wearable
app, which opens directly to the User Tempo mode screen with the metronome currently
paused. The User Tempo mode is currently set to the first user tempo in the list, 105.The watch
remembers the last settings she used, which she’d like to keep, so she doesn’t need to change
the vibrate, sound, or accent beat settings. She presses the play button and starts playing the
song. Right as the song switches to Allegro she shifts her right thumb slightly to tap the watch
screen on her left wrist which switches TikTok to 130 BPM. She does all this without missing a
beat!
Drummer Lana just heard this awesome Drum and Bass song called “Propane
Nightmares” and wants to learn how to play the song herself. She’s in her parent’s garage alone
at home. She likes practicing with TikTok as her metronome, but she doesn’t know what BPM
the song is supposed to be played at. She leaves her phone on a music stand so she can play the
song while practicing. She puts her Moto360 around her lower bicep so that it won’t interfere
with her drumming. She opens TikTok which displays the previous BPM she had set, 75, and
remembers that she wants sound off and vibrate on from the previous time she used the app.
The TikTok opens with the metronome paused. She plays “Propane Nigthmares” from her
phone and, while closely listening to the music, taps out the beat on the bottom of her watch
screen on her bicep. Once she feels she’s gotten the beat right she stops tapping. TikTok
averages the frequency of her taps and sets the beat to match: 88 BPM. Then she presses play
on TikTok and jams out!
User Studies, Details and Findings
During user testing, we asked users to perform multiple tasks including playing music at specific tempos, measuring tempos from recordings, and switching tempos while practicing one song. We asked our users to perform these tasks first with no metronome and again with our Framerjs protoype.
From our users, we discovered that scrolling is much faster and more intuitive than tapping an arrow to set the BPM. We also discovered that we needed to add a clear indicator of where to tap to measure BPM.
Final Design
Technical Challenges
Unlike the Apple Watch, Android Wear devices don't have speakers. This made it impossible for TikTok to use an audible tap in addition to the vibration. Another challenge is that it's hard to time the animation perfectly when there may be multiple processes running at once.
Why TikTok?
Rhythm is one of the fundamentals of music. It keeps people together! TikTok is the simplest and most accessible metronome for individual practicing musicians. Its subtle watch vibrations help the user to effectively internalize the beat.
View our initial code: https://bitbucket.org/megaukelele/tik-tok
Any new features will be pushed to the Github repository: https://github.com/MegaUkulele/TikTok
Download TikTok from the Google Play Store Today!
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