Our Team.
We worked as a group on this project together in class
Muraw
People with anxiety disorders often experience restlessness due to tense behavior and stiff muscles due to the persistent emotional state of anxiety. For such individuals, a program that properly releases body energy and relaxes muscle tension is essential.
Our project is an interactive product for users to relieve their nervous physical and mental fatigue by creating music and visually interacting with it with the help of a music therapist.
Videos of final design
problem
Facilitating a relaxed state of mind for individuals suffering from emotional expression deficits, such as anxiety disorders
challenge
How might we create a tangible user interface and experience for music therapy which facilitates a relaxed state of mind for individuals suffering from emotional expression deficits, such as anxiety disorders?
key outcome
Users with emotional expression deficiencies can relax and remain in a comfortable state of mind with the tangible music therapy.
Project Goal
The project goal is to explore how we might be able to design a "tangible user interface for music therapy" to help people with mental and physical fatigue relieve stress, relax tension, and experience a comfortable state of mind.
Definition of Music Therapy
The term music therapy refers to the combination of music, which emphasizes artistry and creativity, and therapy based on scientific measurements.
The American Music Therapy Association defines music therapy as the use of music for therapeutic purposes, including the restoration, maintenance, or improvement of mental and physical well-being.
Music Therapy Method
The music therapy method used in this project is improvisational music therapy. By using musical elements such as rhythm, the therapist and client create music together and improvise to suit their abilities. The client experiences a pleasant experience as a result of such creative expression activities. Specifically, it stimulates the senses, promotes development, and enhances cognitive function.
Target Users
OCD(obsessive-compulsive disorder) children, narcissistic personality disorder adults, autistic children, aggressive adolescents, impulsive children, depressed adults, and developmentally retarded or physically disabled children.
Roles of Users
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Music Therapist: Curate sound samples and help participants play with them to improvise.
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Participants: Primary user of this system who experiences such creative activity.
Ideation
Lo-Fi Prototype
Electro-Optical Sensor
Key Goals
Key Interactions
Play and tune music
Participants listen to the sounds and customize on their own style (such as drawing more lines or erasing portions of lines to make beats)
Opportunity
There is a tool which therapist can use for celebrating participants. (cheer up them)
Research
Finding 1
Potential Users
Finding 2
Choice of music
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Military and Veteran. Music therapy can help with trauma.
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Patients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Individuals on the spectrum learn best when there is familiarity, and structure.
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People with Alzheimer's disease. Because of predictability, familiarity, and safety, music therapy may aid memory and stimulate.
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Persons in correctional institutions. music therapy may help with problem-solving, communication skills, relaxation, and impulse reduction.
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Victims of trauma and crisis. You may feel anxious, stressed, and distressed if you've been through trauma and crisis. Music therapy can help you reduce these three experiences.
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People with physical problems. The list includes people with chronic pain, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, headaches, and recent surgery.
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People with mental illness. Suppose you're dealing with a mental illness. In that case, music therapy can help you communicate and express, and help you explore your thoughts and feelings.
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People with chronic pain. Music therapy can help reduce your pain, anxiety, fatigue, and depression.
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Substance abusers. Studies have shown that it can increase motivation and self-esteem, reduce muscle tension, reduce anxiety, and improve self-awareness.
Music should vary from person to person and cannot be stereotyped. For patients with different conditions, appropriate music therapy should be carried out according to the characteristics and severity of the disease.
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Depressed patients are suitable for listening to low and sad music, usually with a certain appreciation and beauty. Only when the patient recognizes and accepts the resonance in the music and feels the power of the music will naturally fade away the melancholy and choose the light.
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For patients with impatience, it is suitable to choose a slow rhythm, which can make people relax and contemplate, so as to adjust and overcome their impatience, such as the adagio part in European classical music and classical symphony.
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For patients who are pessimistic and difficult to excite, it is advisable to listen to more majestic and rough music. Such music is very helpful for people who lack self-confidence. The firm and powerful rhythm of the music will accompany the patient's pessimism.
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The best choice for patients with memory loss is the music they often listen to and are familiar with. People usually have certain feelings for certain favorite music.
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For specific groups of people who are injured and in the recovery stage, it is suitable to listen to more lyrical, relaxed, and elegant classical music, lyrical music, or vocals. This kind of music can help these specific groups to reduce and even eliminate the stress of tension, which is conducive to recovery and recovery.
Finding 3
One perspective prioritizes the idea that each client and each session is different and that therapists, therefore, adapt and respond to each client in each session differently. In this line of thinking, change can occur in different domains (musical or social) and changes in individual characteristics can occur in different directions, depending on the client.
Storyboard
Stage 1: Treatment is discussed with the subject. Ask the patient to share their favorite song. and feelings about the song. The therapist needs to have a correct and comprehensive understanding of the object of treatment, and summarize the current situation of the object of treatment. Generally speaking, a certain musical style or a certain song that the treatment object particularly likes can tell his inner and personality characteristics. Psychological counseling and therapy can then be carried out in a targeted manner.
Stage 2: This stage is when the subject recalls the most impressive song or music. Let it recall the emotion in the music. Resonate and achieve the effect of treatment. The therapist uses our product to play some self-created music memories that are suitable for the patient, which can make the subjects recall past events and express their emotions appropriately, so as to pin their emotions on the therapist.
stage3：After a long period of professional analysis by music therapists, different types of music and therapy are customized for each different patient.
stage 4: By working with patients to use our products, guide patients to make music that they are happy with and helpful to their treatment.
User Journey Map
The user journey map shows the entire process of users utilizing the product with the help of a music therapist. This includes the user's behavior, interactions with the product and therapist, and the user's mood.
Mechanism
The mechanism is that we have selected the final user type through group discussion and research, and different types of music that different users need include examples and instruments.
This is one of the therapeutic pieces of music that can be used to create rhythms and melodies with chordchords
Then, with the help of the website Chordchord, we created a variety of different music for different users. Put a well-researched integration package on this website, and you can listen to different music suitable for treatment.
