Press Release
Architone Music Learning App by Jiaxing Yu and Wenqi Wu Receives the A' Design Award in Education, Teaching Aid and Training Content Design
The international grand jury of the 2024 - 2025 A' Design Award & Competition recognizes Jiaxing Yu and Wenqi Wu for education, teaching aid and training content design
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 18, 2025 /DesignNewswire/ Architone Music Learning App by Jiaxing Yu and Wenqi Wu, designed for Zhejiang University, has been granted the A' Design Award in the Education, Teaching Aid and Training Content Design category, A' Design Award & Competition has announced. The result belongs to the 2024 - 2025 A' Design Award & Competition and was reached through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who assessed anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
What the A' Design Award Means
The Iron A' Design Award is awarded to good designs that meet the rigorous professional and industrial standards set by the A' Design Awards. This recognition is reserved for works that demonstrate a solid understanding of design principles and show creativity within their execution. Recipients of the Iron A' Design Award are acknowledged for their practical innovations and contributions to their respective fields, providing solutions that improve quality of life and foster positive change. These designs are a testament to the skill and dedication of their creators, showcasing their ability to address real-world challenges through thoughtful design.
Regarding Architone Music Learning App
Traditional music education often leaves learners confused by abstract theory and aural skills, reducing their interest and creativity. Architone innovatively transforms abstract music theory into intuitive musical blocks and buildings to help learners naturally acquire knowledge through engaging interaction and ultimately empowering them to create beautiful music. Its dual-mode design, Learning Mode and Creation Mode, supports incremental skill development while fostering creativity. Architone uses the power of design to make every learner a musical architect.
About Jiaxing Yu and Wenqi Wu
Jiaxing Yu is a Ph.D. candidate in Design at the College of Computer Science and Technology, Zhejiang University. His research focuses on intelligent music generation and music education, exploring how technology can enhance creativity and learning experiences in music. Through his research, he aims to expand the accessibility and engagement of music education and composition in digital environments.
Award Record
This recognition makes Jiaxing Yu and Wenqi Wu a winner of 1 A' Design Award.
About the A' Education, Teaching Aid and Training Content Design Award
The A' Education Design Award is an international competition recognizing good education products and projects by leading designers and brands worldwide. The competition is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to education designers, teaching aid designers, training content creators and curriculum developers from all countries. Entries typically include textbooks, e-learning platforms, educational games, training manuals, instructional videos and interactive whiteboards. Awarded education designs are published at https://designers.org/design-category/education
About A' Design Award & Competition
A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade organized annually since 2008. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The A' Design Award has a philanthropic mission to advance society through good design by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Entries are peer reviewed and anonymously evaluated by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. The A' Design Prize granted to eligible laureates includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, the upload of a work and the preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. Further information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://designers.org/170188
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/170188
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!170188
- Laureate Profile: https://designers.org/d/366292
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
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Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- Architone Music Learning App
- Function
- Music Learning App
- Category
- Education, Teaching Aid and Training Content Design
- Discipline
- Service Design
- Industry
- Education
- Colors
- Dark Slate Gray, Dim Gray, Light Slate Gray, Gray and Dark Orange
- Images
- 5
- Client
- Zhejiang University
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Jiaxing Yu and Wenqi Wu
- Country
- China
- Recognition
- A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2024 - 2025
- Design ID
- #170188
Credits
- Team
- Jiaxing Yu, Wenqi Wu, Yuxuan Gao and Kejun Zhang
- Image Credits
- Creator, Jiaxing Yu, ArchiTone Main Image, 2025.; Creator, Jiaxing Yu, ArchiTone All Modes, 2025.; Creator, Jiaxing Yu, ArchiTone Learning Mode, 2025.; Creator, Jiaxing Yu, ArchiTone Creation Mode, 2025.; Creator, Jiaxing Yu, ArchiTone Learning Mode Details, 2025.
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- ArchiTone innovatively transforms abstract music theory into intuitive musical blocks and buildings to help learners naturally acquire knowledge through engaging interaction and ultimately empowering them to create beautiful music. Its dual-mode design, Learning Mode and Creation Mode, supports incremental skill development while fostering creativity. ArchiTone uses the power of design to make every learner a musical architect.
- Inspiration
- Music education has long been recognized for its profound impact on cognitive development, emotional regulation, and social inclusion. However, traditional approaches to music education often leave learners confused by abstract theories and aural skills. According to our formative interviews with educators and learners, we found three key pain points: the abstractness of music theory, the monotony of repetitive training, and the lack of purpose-driven integration. These challenges inspire us to design ArchiTone, an App for music theory learning and music praxis.
- Research
- At present, music education plays an important role in many aspects, such as reducing stress, enhancing creativity, and fostering collaborative skills. However, traditional methods often struggle to effectively convey abstract concepts and aural skills to learners. Through interviews with both educators and learners, we found three major challenges with existing learning softwares: the abstractness of music theory, the monotony of repetitive training, and the lack of integration between theory and practice. Therefore, we designed the ArchiTone, a platform for music theory learning and music praxis.
- Challenge
- The most significant challenge in designing ArchiTone is bridging the gap between abstract music theory and intuitive, engaging learning experiences. In our interviews, we found that educators and learners alike desired a way to visualize music that would lower barriers to teaching and learning. Aiming at the above problems, we designed a visualization scheme for core music concepts in ArchiTone, representing them as interesting musical blocks and buildings. After more than 20 iterations, we are confident that we have done great things.
- Realization and Technology
- We carried out interviews with both music educators and music learners. After the interviews, we first created the interface prototype and low-fidelity design on Figma software and iterated through user testing. Then, we developed ArchiTone as an iPadOS application using SwiftUI that enables adaptive layouts and smooth animations.
- Operation and Interaction
- ArchiTone includes two modes: Learning Mode and Creation Mode. Learning Mode is designed to progressively introduce chords and harmony structures. In this mode, there are multiple levels, starting with the fundamental chords and advancing to the more complex chords. In each level, learners first learn a new chord block alongside previously learned chord blocks through a musical composition, and then reinforce their understanding by reconstructing the musical building from shuffled blocks. Creation Mode allows learners to freely use the chords they have already learned to create new musical works.
- Project Duration and Location
- The project started in Hangzhou, China, in October 2023 and was completed in October 2024.
- Specifications
- This application takes iPad Pro 13-inch as the template and refers to the official interface design specification of iOS. It is adaptable to many different resolutions and kinds of screens.
- Keywords
- Music education, Learning platform, Music learning, App, Music
