What Early User Involvement Could Look Like—Developing Technology Applications for Piano Teaching and Learning

Abstract

Numerous technological solutions have been proposed to promote piano learning and teaching, but very few with market success. We are convinced that users’ needs should be the starting point for an effective and transdisciplinary development process of piano-related Tactile Internet with Human-in-the-Loop (TaHIL) applications. Thus, we propose to include end users in the initial stage of technology development. We gathered insights from adult piano teachers and students through an online survey and digital interviews. Three potential literature-based solutions have been visualized as scenarios to inspire participants throughout the interviews. Our main findings indicate that potential end users consider posture and body movements, teacher–student communication, and self-practice as crucial aspects of piano education. Further insights resulted in so-called acceptance requirements for each scenario, such as enabling meaningful communication in distance teaching, providing advanced data on a performer’s body movement for increased well-being, and improving students’ motivation for self-practice, all while allowing or even promoting artistic freedom of expression and having an assisting instead of judging character. By putting the users in the center of the fuzzy front end of technology development, we have gone a step further toward concretizing TaHIL applications that may contribute to the routines of piano teaching and learning.