Dancert
An interactive experience of attending a virtual concert in the Metaverse with a smart wearable device on hand and leg to connect users with their avatars. With a motion sensor and a sound sensor, the Dancert device bonds users and their avatars to enjoy various engaging activities related to dancing and singing in the concert.
Role
Interaction Design, Prototyping, User Testing, Field Research
Team
Noverah Khan, Qimei Fu, Na Zhou
Tools
Procreate, Arduino, IFTTT, Processing, Miro, Slack
Timeline
4 Weeks
Background
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, live streamed concerts have become popular as people had to stay in their homes and refrain from going to gatherings which had large crowds as it would increase the risk of contracting the virus. However, live streamed concerts lack the energy that in-person concerts have due to factors like social interaction and group spirit, as the crowd can sing along and cheer, jump and dance, etc. Furthermore, in-person concerts have the ‘concert environment’ with the singer on the stage, concert lighting, smoke and confetti, etc. In a live-streamed concert, the environment is most likely the person’s room or house. Live streamed concerts can also be compared to watching a YouTube video or a concert recording as the person is attending the concert through their gadget (e.g., laptop or tablet screen).
Sketching & Prototyping
Initial ideas after brainstorming:
Using glow sticks to participate
Avatar dances/sings with the user
Choice of joining a group to sing and chat
Final Design Flow
Usability Testing
In order to get feedback to improve our design and come up with a potential direction for future steps, we tested with 5 participants by using the above storyboards to do a conceptual walkthrough of the design. We received the following insights:
Thinking more about the control relationship of the wristbands.
Building more connections between audience and the singer.
Providing the audience with an option of joining in (or not joining in) the interaction.
Thinking about different ways of switching between different modes in the interaction.
Exploring the aspect of accessibility in detail.
Next Steps
We need to conduct usability testing of the wrist and leg bands, and reshape them according to ergonomic principles to further enhance user comfort.
Trying to build more interactions between users, including both singer and the audience. The most exciting part is the interaction with the surroundings in live concerts, so we should consider that the audience's reaction also acts as an incentive and positive feedback for the singer. We should focus more on this in the future.
In addition to singing and dancing, we also need to think about more touch-points for the concert experience.