For American music history, guitar has a irreplaceable place. The guitar is known as the main instrument in blues, country, flamenco, or some of the pop music. It started the diversity of modern music. And then, the electric guitar created a new style of music and became fever.

There won't be rock 'n' roll without the electric guitar, and we have to thanks for its creator, Leo Fender. When he was young, he was interested in radio and amplification. At the time, many people tried to make guitar sound louder and set the pickup on it. Also, the guitar has a sound box which is a hollow space in the guitar and it makes guitar big and heavy. Leo Fender wanted to solve the problem of holding, he started to produce the solid guitar with the knowledge of amplification he had. Then, the first electric guitar, broadcaster, has been made in 1948. And in 1954, Leo improved the broadcaster, and produced the most famous guitar now, Fender stratocaster, or strat. The electric guitar today is made with the model of strat because it has a great design for the guitarist. Strat doesn't use the sound box for amplification but the tremolo arm on six strings. When it is made solid, the size can get smaller and the guitar can be lighter and played easier. And also because it doesn't use sound box, the outline won't be constrained by the shape sound box needs. It has two horns and bright color to show its heat. Most of all, the componets are cheaper than classic guitar. It is easy to change and repair. Therefore, in every aspect, strat is functional and has a great looking. That's why strat is so popular between the guitarists.

From the evolution of guitar, we can see that the basic point of improving is the thought "Make it easy to use," but not the unique sound it has. Because Leo wanted to lighten its weight, he found out the way to replace the sound box. Also, the reason why he could replace it successfully is because he applied the profession knowledge he already had. From this point, he changed to use solid body, and then changed its looking to give a wild image. Finally, the electric guitar has its hot sounds to make more different music style from the classic music. Leo knew how to form image by design, and everyone likes it. However, if it were hard to use, there wouldn't be so many people want to use it. So it is the point: "Make it easy" that makes people will to have it, and so do other instruments.

To summarize, Fender's design starts from user's view. Therefore, there are so many advantages of strat and it became popular so fast. The maker knows what user needs and the user can know how to use at once, and this is the meaning of the interaction design. And this is one example of the interaction design.


Reference:

Patrick Taylor. "Patrick Taylor Web Design" http://www.patricktaylor.com/fender-stratocaster (accessed October 8, 2007).