Microsoft Surface 1.0 Music Application

June 2007 – Keywords: Touch Screen, Interactive Table

We created an entirely new way to experience and interact with music. We made music feel tangible and accessible and enable people to connect with music in a personal way.

Prior to starting Variate Labs, Miles worked as a senior user experience designer at Schematic Inc. in Los Angeles. Miles designed the user experience behind the new music application and oversaw its internal development. This included designing both the interface experience as well as how the music application would be integrated into the surrounding architectural space.

The Microsoft Surface project aimed to create the first mass market touch-screen based furniture in the United States. Miles worked on this project a year before the official Microsoft Surface launch. This application has been built and implemented across all Microsoft Surface Tables and was integral in steering the future of music applications across both Microsoft Surface 1.0 and Microsoft Surface 2.0.

More information about Microsoft Surface developments can be found on theMicrosoft Surface Website. A new version of the Microsoft Surface platform, Surface 2.0 is currently on the market.

Tangible Information

We created an entirely new way to experience and interact with music. We designed a new user experience that makes music feel tangible and accessible and enables people to connect with music in a personal way. Users can explore music content in a way that makes the songs and albums feel tactile and lifelike. User can drag songs from albums into a communal player to hear the songs player in their immediate surroundings.

Life-like Depth

Upon approaching the Surface table, the user sees a number of music albums casually arranged at the bottom of the digital space. A user can touch albums to levitate them up to the exploratory zone where individual song titles are shown.

Multi-user Communal Music Player

A user can touch and expand the communal player to edit the playlist queue inside.

Editable Communal Playlist

A user can touch and expand the communal player to edit the playlist queue inside. We designed multiple versions of the communal player and finally decided to use the vertical player.