MUSO

OVERVIEW

MUSO is a groundbreaking XR music synthesizer that invites young minds to embark on an musical adventure, turning ordinary objects into enchanting instruments. MUSO empowers music lovers to create their own music bands and explore endless soundscapes, all without the need for prior musical knowledge or technical skills.

Achievement

-Won Vega Digital Awards, MUSE Design Awards, Spark Design Awards, International Design Awards, UX Design Awards Nomination

-Independently built a functional prototype in Unity using C#, learning both Unity prototyping and C# from scratch.

My Role

Interaction Design

XR prototyping

User Testing

Team

Monica Zhang

Zoe Zhang

Hattie Li

Timeline

6 weeks

Mar-Apr 2023

TOOls

Figma

Unity

Visual Studio Code

Different objects in real life have different shapes, colors and ways of interaction. MUSO convert different objects into different musical instruments according to their shapes and sizes.

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Validation and iteration

Our team invited 8 people to join the user testing. Participants ranged from music lovers to multimedia designers. Based on our demo, the test allowed us to identify the following issues.

Validation and iteration

Our team invited 8 people to join the user testing. Participants ranged from music lovers to multimedia designers. Based on our demo, the test allowed us to identify the following issues.

Micro-interaction

MUSO places a strong emphasis on exploration. The user needs to explore the surrounding objects to find the basic shapes hidden in them, such as squares, prototypes, pill shapes, etc.

Micro-interaction

MUSO places a strong emphasis on exploration. The user needs to explore the surrounding objects to find the basic shapes hidden in them, such as squares, prototypes, pill shapes, etc.

Recognition and awards

This project received recognition from multiple international competitions, winning Vega Digital Awards, MUSE Design Awards, Spark Design Awards, International Design Awards, and earning a UX Design Awards nomination.

Recognition and awards

This project received recognition from multiple international competitions, winning Vega Digital Awards, MUSE Design Awards, Spark Design Awards, International Design Awards, and earning a UX Design Awards nomination.

Design process

Project MUSO took a different approach by starting with rapid prototyping instead of deep problem analysis. Using Oculus Quest 2 and Unity, I built a demo to explore ideas through making. While VR offers endless possibilities, it can feel detached from reality. To address this, we used the Passthrough feature to overlay the interface onto real environments, allowing users to get tactile feedback from physical objects while experiencing new sensory stimuli in VR.

Design process

Project MUSO took a different approach by starting with rapid prototyping instead of deep problem analysis. Using Oculus Quest 2 and Unity, I built a demo to explore ideas through making. While VR offers endless possibilities, it can feel detached from reality. To address this, we used the Passthrough feature to overlay the interface onto real environments, allowing users to get tactile feedback from physical objects while experiencing new sensory stimuli in VR.

Final design

MUSO’s music creation experience unfolds in four interactive steps:

Step 1: Observation
Users start by observing objects in their surroundings from different angles and abstracting them into simple geometric shapes.

Step 2: Exploration
With guidance from a built-in tutorial, users experiment with various playing methods, discovering how shape and size influence sound. Each shape corresponds to a different category of musical instruments, encouraging playful exploration.

Step 3: Education
As users manipulate different shapes and sizes, they’re introduced to fundamental music theory concepts in a hands-on way.

Step 4: Combination
Finally, users combine objects of different sizes and shapes to assemble their own musical ensembles.

Final design

MUSO’s music creation experience unfolds in four interactive steps:

Step 1: Observation
Users start by observing objects in their surroundings from different angles and abstracting them into simple geometric shapes.

Step 2: Exploration
With guidance from a built-in tutorial, users experiment with various playing methods, discovering how shape and size influence sound. Each shape corresponds to a different category of musical instruments, encouraging playful exploration.

Step 3: Education
As users manipulate different shapes and sizes, they’re introduced to fundamental music theory concepts in a hands-on way.

Step 4: Combination
Finally, users combine objects of different sizes and shapes to assemble their own musical ensembles.

project video

project video

Hello! I’m Monica Zhang

About

Resume

Hello! I’m Monica Zhang

About

Resume