Week 20: Layout prototyping

After some consideration and feedback on my initial icon layout I realised that there were some issues with the design that needed to be addressed. In particular I realised that the layout was somewhat confusing, as with all of the icons spread out across the guitar the user has to meticulously search for the place on the instrument that they have to work on. In addition by trying to rely on icons far more than text it may not always be clear on what the user has to do. To combat these issues I decided to put most of the information on the body in cohesive steps, with small indicators across the instrument showing which steps correlate to which parts of the guitar. This thinking was inspired by the layout of a Haynes manual, which uses a combination of text, images and indicators to clearly explain what each component does and how to interact with it.

On top of this I created a quick prototype of the form out of MDF to get a feel for the scale of the product and how the pieces fit together. I think some small adjustments will have to be made to the body to accommodate the guide and the edges should be smoothed out so that it is more comfortable to hold. With this in mind what I should focus on in the coming week is bringing all of these elements together to make a new prototype.