UX of Birdsong

Being a brief we received online at our respective residences, the first task became finding birdsong near us. We had gone deep into the colder part of the winter season and that meant some bird species had already migrated to other areas for warmth.

Capturing birdsong

To have both visual proof and melodies of birdsong, we used the signature artefact of society today, our mobile phones to capture videos of different bird species producing birdsong while at Hyde Park, London.

Charlie and Devin managed to find birdsong along Elephant and Castle and their captured experiences came in handy too.

A closer look at the media we captured in addition to our in-person experiences drew us to a conclusion that birds have occupied places with greater concentrations of nature like trees and water bodies and thus explaining their stronger presence in Hyde Park as illustrated below:

Tap-and-go

From the conclusion above, we moved on to establish places that would benefit from birdsong we unanimously decided on train stations with the tap-and-go system in particular. The idea was that we replace the sound made by the access machines on tap, and would altogether make harmonious sound from different species birdsong. Here are videos that inspired this idea.

With large-size cardboard, A4 paper, markers, thumb pins, coloured rolls of thread and tape, we set out to make a birdsong ticketing prototype. On the side, were thread patterns to emulate pitches of birdsong.

The prototypes were presented to an attentive audience that appreciated the craftmanship that went into creating them.

• Train stations are noisy and our idea would not necessarily make it better.
• The sounds made from ticketing systems are standardised for accessibility reasons.
• Some birdsong may not be to everyone's preference.