Player Design

I wanted the players to be contextual to the era selected. I wanted it to be like a mini time machine. You will be transported back to the era you have selected and the app will place you in a typical scene from the time period. I wanted to keep it similar to the iPod app on iPhones (or just original iPods for that matter). I did this because I think that players in apps have a tendency to, when given the chance, overdo it somewhat. They create a very elaborate player that is so drastically different to anything seen before and unique. This can make it difficult and confusing to navigate and use. I wanted to create something familiar and user friendly. However, I did want to create a unique space that would evoke nostalgia and look fitting to the music playing. This posed an issue.

How was I going to create something historically accurate to the 30's and 40's yet still retain a modern method for controlling the music playing that is intuitive and not distracting/glaring. What I came up with is separating the two. The controls would be a self contained overlay. This gives them there own space and rationale. This makes them separate to the player and gives them the free reign to be completely different to their surroundings and not be glaring and distracting. They are merely functional and the fact that they are separate to the player itself and the fact that you can toggle them makes them able to be modern and not break the atmosphere. This is the player for the 1940's:

I wanted to include things that fit in to the time era. The cigarette, plectrum and newspaper place you in the time along with the table beneath them all. The coffee and money place the user in America adding some geographical relevance. I think this works well as it is simple and I don't think that I overdid the contextual objects around the record. It's enough to create an atmosphere and setting but not so much that it becomes overpowering and a gimmick. Now here are the controls I created:

(Ignore the fact that it looks strange. It is semi-transparent and that for some reason made it look weird in the preview when I screen shotted it). However, this is the controls system I created. It is simple, clean, familiar and easy to use. When overlaid onto the player it fits nicely and works effortlessly. I think that this is one of the best methods for combining ease of use with detail and atmosphere. And what's more because the controls are contained within themselves I didn't need to worry about changing them from player to player as they would just work over any player created. This creates unity over the app and makes it so that the user will never be lost will know how to control the app at any point without having to think about it.