Brief 4: UX OF bird song

Group 7: Jumleena Bhagawati, Wan Li, Yanxu Chen, Cristèle Saric

Design an urban birdsong experience.

Research: finding and understanding bird song

A crucial part of our design process was to fundamentally understand the nature of bird song and its conditions as a natural tool for communication. As seen in fig.1 & 2, we decided to do some background research and collect quantitative data on the functioning and purposes of bird sound.

Fig.1 framework of research

Fig.2 additional notes

Based on our collective collection of data, a significant piece of research we found was that birds mainly used bird songs as a tool to mate during the spring. We realised that it was highly unlikely for us to hear bird sound as the project started during the winter.

Research expansion: Soundwalking and outcomes

Following our background research, we decided to venture out anyway and do some sound walking to record bird song or the experience of attempting to hear bird song in the busy hustle and bustle of London. As the team lived in different neighborhoods and areas, each member recorded a variety of different observations. These were recorded in figure 2, 3, 4. Because I live nearer to the countryside, the experience of layered sound for myself was mainly due to natural sounds of my environment, like the wind and its making leaves move through trees. But as a group, we all found that in order to hear bird sound, we needed to filter our own hearing amidst external noises.

Fig.3 Screengrab of Wan's soundwalking notes showcasing a mixture of media to record and observe

Data collection

We collected a range of different data using different media to analyse our experience of sound walking. We also rendered our experience as shown in fig. 3 of the various sounds were heard during one of our soundwalks.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/3460d0_0e50a499ed664fc6b860fafe27552d0f/720p/mp4/file.mp4

Fig.4. Video recorded by Yanxu of her sundwalk

fig.5. Notes and drawings of my soundwalk

Conclusions gained from soundwalking​​​​​​​

- Due to it being difficult for us to hear bird songs during our soundwalking, our experience led us to question how birds amongst the same species hear each other, and we wondered how they could communicate effectively through the noises of cars, people walking, the weather and other birds. - We were also able to relate it to the sometimes difficult experience of humans to find a partner in a big city. ​​​​​​​

We came to the conclusion that hearing bird song is an incredibly layered experience, especially in the hustle and bustle of urban environments like London. The experience of sound walking led us to consider our relation to our ecosystem in urban environments, and we wondered how bird song contributed to the urban environment.

Prototyping: Ideation stage and body storming

Following our research, we found that (specifically in natural environments) for humans to be able to hear bird song, the higher the frequency the more harmonious the bird song will sound to the human ear. Additionally, the broader the range, the less harmonious and more noisy the bird song might sound to us. This piece of research led us to body storm by using paper cups the experience of trying to hear each other within the noise of our class environment.

Prototyping: Ideation stage

From the research done and the sound walking we took an interest in the courtship process of birdsong and the ability to hear through an urban environment those sounds and linked with how sound is layered depending on what you can hear and want to focus your hearing on. We considered how birds can hear and experience of the courtship process amidst the noises and bustle of a big city like London which is a less natural place for birds to follow the mating ritual. We related to the sometimes difficult experiences for humans to find a partner within a big city. In order to explore this further we created a first prototype where our user be experiencing firsthand the courtship process of birds by singing bird songs through a building. This is set up as the male and female birds are separated by this building. The goal is for the male and female birds to find their matching mate in order to be a pair through the noises of the city. The task involved everyone having each a bird song to imitate through the “telephone” and to recreate it by calling each other. The female birds have to try out every cup and hone in on each sound to find the same bird song they were given.

Prototype 1: making

We used cardboard, string and paper cups to create our structure. This first prototype was easy to do, however testing would make or break the experience.

User testing & challenges

Unfortunately, during testing, we encountered issues with the sound being transferred through the string and cardboard. Upon the interim presentation of our prototype, the execution of the activity was also faulty and needed tidying up overall. The assigning of bird sound and our user's ability to recreate them in a way that would be recognisable for the other participants was also too complicated of a task to do in a matter of time.

During our interim presentation, some of the other problems highlighted were that the concept was too heteronormative and using the wrong materials.

Prototyping: back to the drawing board

We decided to hone in on the immersion aspect of hearing birdsong through the noise of a big city. We experimented with a second prototype where we’d build a peaceful hub in which you could sit in and experience nature and bird sounds within an urban environment (fig.10) However due to it being structurally difficult to build and based on the feedback we got from our tutorial with Tonicha, we found that it was best to return to the initial communicative aspect of our concept and improve/fine-tune it.

Prototype 2: Development & challenges in making

​​​​​​​We attempted to build different structures using various materials once we'd decided to return to our initial prototype, however, these were also too complicated to build (fig.11).

​​​​​​​By starting over our planning, we ended up finding a solution to our structure and went ahead to build a simpler prototype by using a sheet of plastic and leaves to enhance the natural environment. We reused some of our old material from our very first prototype to make the final structure but went to look for more recyclable materials to enhance the realism of the game.

Prototyping: prototype 1

​​​​​​​As we were returning to our initial; prototype, we decided to enhance the realism of our structure by painting the cardboard used initially and making it resemble the city of London. We also weaved in dead leaves to enhance the ''listener's'' immersion within the e''natural'' environment (fig.12-13)

Feedback and reflections

For our final presentation, we slightly changed the rules of our dating birds game to be more concise and accessible to our users. Although we'd improved our prototype to be more visually appealing, the rules were still a little chaotic for all of users to participate. I found that working with my team around the topic of birds' ability to find a mate within an ever-growing urban environment led me to consider our presence within a natural ecosystem, and I reflected on the possibilities of a campaign for climate change with an angle directed towards the issue of birds and bird song.