volare
Compact Headphone Design
Project Introduction
This project is an exploration on the objects people carry with them on an every day basis. We were challenged with identifying an object that a person carries with them every single day and redesiging it in a way that meets the user’s needs exactly. The goal was to elevate the object through extensive research and the exploration of different concepts. Therefore, much of the time in this project was spent doing in depth research on the specific object that I chose, headphones. By doing this, I was able to develop a concept that addresses all of the original concerns that were discovered through the user interviews that I conducted. Not only are these headphones designed for the specific persona I created, but they are designed in a way that allows for them to be used by anyone.
user persona
Bio
Emily is a young atheltic college
woman who works at a local coffee
shop while attending college. She
often finds herself carrying a lot, with
no place to store all her items.
Hobbies
Emily has many hobbies that she
enjoys doing in her limited free time.
She loves to play volleyball with her
friends, sketch whatever is on her
mind, and listen to music to wind
down from a busy day of classes.
Purchasing Motivations
functionality
affordability
Identity
Desires
Emily hopes to one day make a
living as an artist. She is extremely
passionate about her art and would
love the opportunity to share it with
the world.
durability
market analysis
These are the current and most popular headphones which would be the
competition for my redesign. Below is a competitive analysis comparing these
products. Here are the product names, listed in order from top to bottom: Bose
Quiet Comfort, Sony WH-1000XM5, Earfun Wave Pro, Airpods Max, Sennheiser
Accentum Plus.
Problem statement
Current headphones are too bulky and cannot compact well. Also, when leaning over a table to work, headphones will slowly slide down the front of the head, forcing the user to constantly readjust.
goals
Design a pair of headphones that are lightweight, compact, easy to carry, and prevent slipping off of a person’s head.
ideation
To begin the ideation phase of this project, I came up with nine different concepts that I felt would help to address the issues discovered through my user research. Each of these ideas addressed the issues in some way, but there was no single idea that fully solved every problem. After some feedback from other students, I decided to move towards combining a few of my better concepts into a singular concept that would fully address the problem at hand.
Removable Earpieces
This concept focused on the idea of having earpieces that could be fully removed and stored in a person’s pockets. This would allow for better storage of the bulkiest part of the headphones, the earpieces, to be stored separate from the band.
Secondary Strap
This design focuses on the issue of the headphones sliding down off of a person’s head. On this concept, there is a secondary strap that goes around the back of the head to prevent slipping.
final design
A Combination of Concepts
The final design I developed combines multiple different concepts that I originally came up with. First of all, rather than having a second band that goes around the back of the head, there are two separate wings that flip down if the user desires to use them. I chose two have two wings rather than one band for two reasons. First of all, my primary stakeholder would be female users, and many women wear there hair in a bun or a ponytail. Having a band around the back of the head could get in the way of this. Secondly, I wanted this pair of headphones to appeal to everyone, even those outside of my original persona. Because the wings can fold up, they don’t get in the way of the overall form of the headphones and can be used normally, without the wings.
