People interact and relate to music in different ways. But where do you store your music and how do you play it? Hip to be square is a concept for a navigation system that questions these questions and answers them with an alternative music player. The context in where it is to be placed is in a room like a peace of furniture. It is not a small gadget you carry around, it is like a piece of furniture for storing your music collection.
The music player has no display or visual buttons. By inserting a cube into the grid a song will play and when a new cube is inserted the song changes to a new one corresponding to that particular combination. This action challenges the user to build up a combination of cubes in the grind. The goal is to make the user more engaged in the interaction in a more physical way then the conventional way of navigating by just pushing a button.
We chose to make the player in wood because it gives more of a natural feeling. Wood also gives a crafted touch and removes the high tech feeling. All technical devices and the two speakers are placed inside the frame. Everything that is visible is made of wood. We made half circles around all holes so the cubs easily can be removed and moved around. The cubs are all 1000 cubic centimeters big and in solid wood. If you drop them they will not break.
