Pace
CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY, WINTER 2012
Pace is a system of products that leverages the power of music to help runners optimize their performance and maintain their mental state. It enables runners to fully control mood and rhythm of their run through music using both mobile app and physical device.
Project Vision.
Pace is a system of products that leverages the power of music to help runners optimize their performance and maintain their mental state. Pace enables runners to fully control mood and rhythm of their run through music. Using both mobile app and physical device, Pace helps runners to categorize music based on mood and pace, which are informed by their own performance and experience.
Team and my role.
This project was created with Jocelyne Hsia and Kristine Mendoza. My personal contributions were UI sketching & wireframing, interface design, final UI renderings and physical device prototyping. All team members participated in research, synthesis, and concept ideation.
User Research
- Key Findings.
Through interviews with casual runners, we found that running is not just for the health benefits, but largely for achieving emotional/mental peace and holistic sense. Runners said music plays an important part in helping them feel or elicit how they want to feel. But, when music doesn’t match mood or pace, the running flow is disrupted because they stop to fiddle with mp3 to change songs. Even when users create music list beforehand, they grow on the runners after a few runs and it is no longer motivating.
Creating music lists for each run is burdensome and users don't like to listen to same music for future runs. For running music, people not only categorize music by genre and artist, but they also categorize music with mood of the song, which is based on rhythm, lyrics, and vibe of the song.
Design Process.
The challenge was to design an interface with minimal steps and simple visuals for runners to quickly glimpse and choose options.
Final Concept.
The team found an opportunity to facilitate music usage and search to help unify three stages in running, before, during, after to create a seamless experience throughout the run. Pace helps unify these running phases by enabling:
1) Manual control | The user selects mood and pace (beats per minute (BPM) of music) before the run.
2) Dynamic Optimization | When the user's pace does not match BPM of music, the system pulls user's favorite music to increase motivation.
3) Reflection and Sharing | The user can reflect and also share music with friends to help them acheive the same running flow.
Before Running.
Mood selection provides a quick access to music list relevant to user’s mood and physical activity. Also, users can categorize music by predefined mood, activity, distance or time. Users can search for music tagged by other runners or create new playlists using their own music.
During the Run.
During the run, the device detects when users are in need of motivation, and pulls set power songs. To pause, stop, or replay music, press down for control menu.
Like on treadmill, runners can control the pace of the run by changing bpm (beats per minute)of music. Turn the device clock-wise to increase bpm and turn counter clock-wise to decrease bpm. The device shows numeric value of bpm and gives haptic feedback.
To skip a song, simply tap the device without
entering the system.
During and After the Run.
When the user’s pace does not match the music, based on accuracy of bpm, the system recognizes that music does not suit the user’s activity. To better help the user, the system pulls user's favorite music to increase motivation. After the run, users can reflect and share music with their friends.