Considering that waterproof
headphones will be mostly targeted at the younger generation, seeing as they are
the ones that will be more interested in seeking entertainment whilst doing
exercise, I decided to interview one of my classmates – Kimiya Najafi, who has
also been taking swimming lessons in PE along with the rest of the grade, to
get an outside opinion and a clearer view on what consumers of this product
might be looking for – with some analysis, this will allow me to understand
what is expected of the product by customers, and how so they face problems in
sports without it.
1) Is
swimming a topic in PE that you enjoy doing?
Swimming
is something I very much enjoy during PE – in fact, I thik everyone looks
forward to it at the end of the year, I mean it’s just so fun!
2) Are
there some things that you wish you could change or have when swimming?
Well,
that’s not something I’ve thought about too specifically, however I think that
we all wish listening to music was something that’s possible in the pool. I
know that the teachers always play music from the stereo, but you don’t really
pay attention to it underwater, really. And you can’t listen to your favourite
songs when someone else hates that genre because the music is for the whole
class.
3) Speaking
of swim gear in general, what are some things you feel that you don’t have with
the swim gear we use at the moment?
Well, we
pretty much have everything we need, although my hair is somehow never dry
underneath my swim cap, and water always seeps through my ears – it’s really
uncomfortable. I would also really like to be able to bring my iPod with me to
the pool, but that’s not really practical, is it, considering the water.
4) Recalling
the synchronized swimming assessment we did last year, how do you feel you did?
Did you face any difficulties with the equipment you had?
I don’t
really think that we had much of a problem in my group, we all knew how to use
our equipment really well, the only thing we faced a little difficulty with was
keeping in time with the music playing from the stereo – for one thing, none of
us could hear it underwater, and so we kept messing up and doing our parts too
quickly, before the cue in the music, so we all looked unsynchronized, which is a problem when you’re trying to do synchronized swimming. Also, whenever we
messed up, we had to wait for the music to estart before we continued – we
couldn’t just change it, seeing as the whole class was sharing it – that wasted
a lot of our time.
5) Do you
think that there could be some sort of product that could be sold that would
help you with this issue? Such as waterproof music devices, perhaps?
That’s
actually a really good idea! Although, we don’t really need actual devices that
are waterproof, as waterproof phones already exist, and we could use those for
music, but what we really need is waterproof headphones so we can plug it in and listen to the music straight in
our ears. This way, we can listen to our own favourite songs, and pause/play or
repeat whenever we want.
6) Comfort-wise,
or even just based on convenience, which do you think you would prefer to use
when swimming, headphones or earphones?
While
earphones are much more portable, and they would probably slot into your ears
better underneath your swim cap, I think convenience-wise, headphones would be
better when swimming, seeing as they both block your ears and stop water from
getting inside them, as well as the fact that the can’t be pulled out of your
ears mid-swim like earphones probably would.
7) Is
getting sick from having water in your ears a common thing that you face when
we do swimming in PE lessons?
Oh,
definitely, every time we swim I get water in my ears, sometimes even to the
point where it completely blocks them and all I can hear is this weird ringing
noise. This always leads to a cold too; I’m always sniffling in the other
lessons afterwards.
8) You
mentioned having phones and MP3 players as music devices earlier on, how do you
feel about having them on your person along with headphones when swimming?
Actually, how about using iPods during sport in general?
Come to
think of it, having an iPod on you when swimming must be really bulky and
uncomfortable – they keep slipping and sliding even when I’m using them
aboveground, let alone even imagining using them underwater! I find that I’m
always running awkwardly, with my back really straight and tense to stop my iPod
from falling off and pulling my earphones with them! Having an iPod attached to
your swimsuit would really restrict your actions subconsciously, I think.
9) Do you
think listening to music while swimming would help you in anyway? Who else do
you think would feel the same way as you?
Well, music
always encourages and motivates you when you’re tired. I find that a good beat
can keep you pumped up and more energetic than you would be when you’re
physically exerting yourself. I think most people in the world would agree, I
mean take this as an example: you can always see everyone’s enthusisasm when
there’s music playing on sports day – if you think about it, without the music,
‘enthusiastic’ is the last thing anyone would be after running around the whole
day – I believe this applies to anyone who is under the age of forty, teenagers
and young adults in general, as we are mainly the ones who do sport, and have
an interest in recent music.
10)
You
mentioned that having an iPod or phone attached to you isn’t exactly ideal when
doing sport – do you think any improvement could be made to the headphones to get
rid of the extra devices in general?
All you
really even require your phone for when listening to music is to store all your
songs in one place. If we were trying to get rid of using them for that purpose
in general, then I guess one way would be to make the headphones/earphones
you’re using wireless so you don’t have to plug it in, then linking or syncing
it with your iTunes library so it can hold and play songs for you later
whenever you’re doing sport without the extra device. Either this, or you could
make it WiFi-connectable, so that you can download and store songs from online
for later.
Based on
my analysis of the answers I got from this interview, I can say that waterproof
headphones really are feasible for this project – they address a problem in
sport that hasn’t been addressed yet before, as they provide a source of
motivation and encouragement for swimmers, and if I design them so that some of
the other things that is required to solve this issue are involved, they could be
of great use to other sportspeople as well – for example, a few ideas I have
right now are to give it features such as the following so that they can be
wireless, and consumers can use them without the extra bulk of a music-playing
device:
·
Bluetooth – this will allow consumers to transfer
music files directly to the headphones storage library from other devices
·
iTunes Sync – Users of Apple that purchase this
product will be able to sync the songs that they already have in their iTunes
library to the headphones
·
WiFi-Enabled – Access to WiFi will allow users to
download music files diractly from the Internet
From
some of the answers, I can see that, with tightly sealed speakers, the
headphones will prove as a more hygienic alternative to the earplugs that some
people use when swimming to stop water from entering and blocking their ears,
making them sick later on. I now know that one thing I need to focus on improving
the headphones with is their portability and how they fit it with the rest of
one’s swim attire. An extra thing I can work on later, during the Create phase
of the project is making the final product with brighter themed colours, seeing
as my outside source believes that this product will most appeal to teenagers
and young adults – the format in which I advertise my product must be targeted
at the younger generation.
No comments:
Post a Comment