Color-Shape Music Notation for the Intellectually Disabled

(From left to right: Erhard, the piano teacher; me; Carl, the piano learner; Diana, my teammate)

Description: The standard music notation, while efficient and versatile, could potentially thwart many beginners, especially people with intellectual disabilities, before they could start enjoying playing music. The color-shape music notation was an effort to facilitate learning music for these people by representing pitch and rhythm with easily distinguishable colors and shapes.

Role: I collaborated with my project partner Diana on most tasks including the competitive analysis, the design and revision of the prototype, the two formative assessments and the final presentation.

Result: The deliverables included a notation system that associated each note with a particular shape and color, two sample sheet music using this new notation, a video demo, a 25-page report and a pitch deck. We were very lucky to have won the first place in the final pitch presentation.