Tactile Music Puzzle

The brief

Design a manually operated 3D puzzle that would be easier for a blind user than a fully sighted user. It needed at least four separable components, multiple valid solutions and an approximate 200 mm build envelope.

The concept

Four interchangeable cylinders encode sections of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy.” Raised patterns allow the cylinders to be compared by touch, while operating the mechanism reveals their order through sound.

Two cylinders are identical, creating more than one valid arrangement. The coloured handles deliberately suggest the wrong sequence, making sight a distraction while touch and sound provide dependable information.

The project explored accessibility as an information-design problem: deciding which cues should be trusted and which should be challenged.

Conceptual design work

Pin & tumbler design sketch

Multi-cylinder interaction sketch

Full assembly design sketch - rough

Full assembly design sketch - isometric