ContextualInquiry-Group:Melody
From CS160 User Interfaces Fa06
Group Member Contributions
Roland Carlos
- Initial Formatting for Page
- User Interview J
- Contributed to Problem/Solution Overview
- Contributed to Task Analysis Questions
Julius Cheng
- Contributed to Problem/Solution Overview
- Contributed to Target Users
- Contributed to Task Analysis Questions
- Contributed to Analysis of Approach
Nankun Huang
- User Interview K-Jane
- Contributed to Analysis of Tasks
- Contributed to Interface Design
Cheng-Lun Yang
- User Interview G
- Proofreading of overall document
- Contributed to Target Users
Target Users (4 points)
Our ideal user is anybody who takes composing music seriously professionally or as a hobby. Additionally, the person should not compose with digital editing tools exclusively, since that would defeat the purpose of our pen-and-paper system. It would have been helpful to interview someone who writes music professionally, but due to time constraints, we were unable to find any willing to donate their time to us.
User J
User J is a Berkeley student who is currently working on producing their own album independently. He has been playing piano for several years since elementary school and has always had a large interest in music. In high school, he began writing his own music and decided to pursue it as a possible career in college. He has been working on his album for several months now and enjoys the music creation process. However, he admits, with so many ideas flying around, it is hard for him to organize his thoughts at times and will forget them if they are not jotted down quickly enough. He is looking for something to help him make the composing process more efficient.
User G
User G is a third year music major student who composed for many of her courses. To her, the most difficult part of composing music is adhering the specific restrictions her professors give for each assignment. She uses pen and paper to compose on five line scores and play it on piano after each section. The composition process for her writing on standard regular paper music sheets and playing back parts on the piano concurrently. She thinks music software like Finale is too hard to use because she doesn't like hovering over a small on-screen music staff to place the notes she wants. In general, she prefers ease of us over ease of storage and distribution.
User K
User K is a third year student at UC Davis. She has been playing the violin since the 3rd grade and is an accomplished musician. She has recently begun composing some of her own songs and is pursuing a career in music. As a student, Jane does not have much spare time to sit down and think of ideas for compositions; most of her work is from inspirations that arise in the midst of her daily activities.
Problem and Solution Overview (1 pt)
With the push of music into the digital age (such as the proliferation of mp3s and digital sound editing), many music composers who are used to the traditional paper way of writing music are finding themselves left behind by the digital push. Despite the increased functionality and features of digital music software, many traditional music composers have limited expertise with computers and find digital software too difficult to use, despite all the advantages that they provide. Many traditional users would like to use the computer to support their works, but lack the time to learn how to write music on the computer.
This project looks to supplement the paper composing process with the Anoto pen technology to give composers access to the benefits of digital sound software while still preserving the paper composing process that is natural to them. We want to create the bridge between the paper and digital composing worlds. Users will be able to write their music on paper, the way they are used to, but will find the process supported by helpful features such as instant music previews, cleaning handwritten notes into a standard easy-to-read format, and saving digital backups of recent works.
Contextual Inquiry - Interview Descriptions (15 pts)
User J
During my interview with User J, we met in a music room in one of the dorm units. The room consisted of a couple chairs and a grand piano, which User J plays regularly. Other than that, there is limited decoration, the main appeal of the music room is its privacy, which User J says he enjoys when creating music. I asked him to describe the usual composition process to me (as the Master) while I observed (as the Apprentice) from a chair behind him. Every now and then, I would ask him questions to clarify a certain process that I was confused about or to go into more detail about a part of the process that he would gloss over (as it may have seemed boring/unimportant to him, but actually important to the process).
For him, the usual composition process had him silently thinking for a little bit, then playing random bars on the piano and seeing where it would go. Oddly enough, he would rarely take notes down (even though he had paper there), but admitted that he commonly forgot what he was playing the day before unless he really drilled into his head. For the most part, it seemed to be that he would toy around on the piano before coming up with something that he seriously would consider writing a song around.
As the process wore down, I engaged him with some questions about his interactions with a digital music interface and what he liked/disliked about it. Then I introduced our project concept to him and asked him what he thought about it, how useful it seemed, features that seemed necessary/unnecessary, and what he would suggest for possible ideas. I finished the interview asking about the pros/cons of his own personal composition process and what areas he thinks that the project could help him in.
User G
I went to the person’s apartment and observed her doing her work there. She usually works at her apartment because she has a piano and prefers writing on five line scores with pen and paper. If she does not have a piano, which is her main instrument, she will have to go to music department to use the instruments there.
She first started off with composing a section at a time and played it on the piano to see if the melody is what she had in mind. During the time, she repeatedly erases and writes on the paper. After a couple sections are done, she played the sections together to get a comprehensive feeling about the melody. Then she would modify what she composed. The cycle kept on going until she finished the whole song. Then she would play the whole thing out with her piano.
After that, I told her the intention of this interview and our proposed design. Her first reaction was questioning the problems of erasing and editing. After I explained the benefit of our design, which provides the feature of saving a digital copy of the music without extra work, User G replied that the feature is nice but she still was worried about the ease of editing on the paper.
User K - "Jane"
I went to Jane’s house to conduct the interview. The first thing I noticed about the environment was how music-oriented it was. There were multiple music stands and there stacks of score sheets and most prominently, there was a huge grand piano in the center of the room.
I wanted Jane to actually compose a song while I was there but she explained that it was impossible for her to do because she usually get her inspiration when she is alone, However, I did ask her to describe her process in detail to me.
I asked Jane how she started composing, and she answered that she played the violin since the 3rd grade. Music has been an integral part of most of her life. Now, as a music student mostly writing music for class assignments, Jane usually writes small tunes, spanning about 30 seconds to 1 minute. Outside of school, she mainly composes cell phone ring tones and has sold ring tones to companies before. She plans to start composing longer and more ambitious music and eventually full songs.
When she start composing her tunes, it usually starts off as a melody in her head, and she plays it out on her piano to determine the actual notes.:
She like to use a pencil and an empty score sheet as her medium for composition. She mentioned that she knows of other people who like to use pens, but she feels the need to erase and constantly make changes. She never uses any kind of digital editing software.
When I asked Jane about alternative technologies such as the Midi keyboard or the creative prodikeys, she was clueless. She has never considered composing without pencil and paper because it affords live feedback from the piano of what she has written, and allows better edits to be made.
Jane does not always compose in front of the piano. She usually gets her inspiration while in class, while taking a walk, or even when taking a shower, but she always write down the ideas in front of the piano because she cannot determine the names of the notes in her mind.
When I asked Jane how she records her music, she tell me that she usually plays the music back on the piano and she has a friend who records it to a mixtape. She has little knowledge or control of the process after that. When asked if she would like to have the ability to create, edit and mix her music herself, she was skeptical and said she’d rather concentrate on composing.
Jane usually composes one or two tunes every week but she mentioned that many of her compositions are subpar and discarded shortly after because they are not catchy enough.
Task Analysis Questions (5 pts)
1. Who is going to use the system?
Obviously the main group of users will be music composers. However, specifically we are looking to users who are used to the paper process of composition and have limited experience with using the computer for composition purposes, but want the benefits/extra support that the computer can provide.
2. What tasks do they now perform?
- Writing on physical sheet music
- Playing back music on a live instrument
- Handwritten note revision
3. What tasks are desired?
- Quick automatic playback of written notes (annoying for users to have to repeatedly manually play back the same notes, which may lead to human error [wrong notes played])
- The ability to edit music with written shorthand (easier to learn than technical details of a computer interface)
- "Cleaning" of handwritten notes into easy to read format
- Archive ability for written notes
- Limited search ability (look up a certain piece of music written on a certain date)
- The ability to hear music in different instruments without having to learn another instrument
- The ability to easily mix in different music pieces
- The ability to easily record an idea on sheet music
4. How are the tasks learned?
In order to read and write music, most often some formal music training is required. By the time that one person reaches the level of being able to write their own music, they are usually proficient enough to do so independently. In regards to writing music however, just like learning how to write, everyone develops their own style which is a mix of their formal training and their own personal habits/work ethic.
For the project, users will have to learn how to work with the Anoto paper, but luckily the main functionality (writing music on paper and sending it to the computer) is simple in that the users do not have to learn how to write music in a new method. Some of the other functionality will require users to learn some simple paper gestures which will be easy to retain with practice.
5. Where are the tasks performed?
Due to the portability of paper and the creative nature of music, anyone who can "hear" the music in their head and easily grab a piece of a paper and sketch 5 bars and jot a couple notes down anywhere. Those who may require an instrument to write music are limited to writing music to wherever a given instrument is available (availability depending on the instrument).
For the project, all the written work will be done on the paper and transferred to the computer through the Anoto system.
6. What's the relationship between user and data?
The data is all of the user's creation. It is up to the user where and when they want to place the notes. However, it is in a language that is readable to all others who can play music.
The digital copies of data will be easily shared like any other computer file.
7. What other tools does the user have?
The user can use instruments to help them clearly hear what they are writing, but other than that, they do not have a lot of assistance in writing music.
8. How do users communicate with each other?
Anyone who can compose music can also read music. Music is also a standardized language that all composers can read so all communication between composers is done by physically sharing sheet music. Despite there being only one way of writing music, difficulties may be encountered between the different writing styles (i.e. one person may write a little dirtier than another).
9. How often are the tasks performed?
The timing depends highly on the user. People whose careers are based solely around music can be expected to write almost everyday while some who do it as a hobby may only dedicate some time once a week or once a month.
10. What are the time constraints on the tasks?
The time constraints vary by user. The main constraint is the actual creation of notes before writing them down. For some reason, what they want to write comes naturally without little work, while some users may need to play a variety of notes on an instrument before they also feel confident enough to start writing music.
The actual writing of music may not take as long (once you know what you want to write, it isn't that hard to physically write it down). It is limited by the writing style of the user.
Currently there is no quick way for someone to turn their paper sheet music into a digital version for use on a computer. Users will have to digitally input the notes into the computer, which could take time if they are unfamiliar with the process. Some programs allow users to play music on an instrument and turn the notes into their digital version but this method is prone to fault from human mistakes. The project hopes to serve as the bridge.
11. What happens when things go wrong?
If a user writes an incorrect note/section, they usually will have to physically erase the note/section to make the revision.
If a user loses a paper copy of sheet music, it is mostly likely gone forever, if no other copies exist.
If a user does not have enough time to finish their work, they can pick up where they left off later. For example, if there might be some error in the data transfer, the data is still left on the pen for later transfer.
Analysis of Tasks (10 pts)
Hard: Composing a short tune (single instrument) The user wishes to compose a short tune which consist of a single instrument
Hard: Composing a song with chords (multiple instrument) The user wishes to compose a full length song which consist of complex dynamics, multiple instruments and chords.
Moderate: Editing a composition on the fly The user wishes to make a change to part of the composition he/she has already completed while she’s still on the same anoto-paper interface.
Moderate: Editing an existing completed composition The user wish to take make changes to a song which had been finished on an earlier date nor was not created with the MELODY system.
Easy: Previewing the composition The user wish to hear what his/her composition sound like up to that point
Easy: Realize the next note in a composition The user has the tune in his/her head, but wish to actually hear it to verify that it’s the actual note he/she wants
Interface Design (20 pts)
Our design will make it easy for composers to create songs through an anoto-paper based interface. The interface itself is a letter sized (8.5 x 11 in.) paper which all music composers should be familiar with. The main elements are marked in the following sketch and explained below
A: Composition Area This is the place where composers can write their notes on the standard 5 lined score. Note that large amounts of white spaces are left between the lines because notes can extend above the 5 lines and composers can add in these lines themselves.
Here we make use of the affordance that the 5 lined score is the accepted and natural way for most music composers to work with. This is an learnt affordance of most musically trained personal.
The 5-lined composition area is as close to direct manipulation as composing music can be for a composer. On this composition area, the notes themselves act as metaphors for sounds. He is able to use it to change the pitch, pace and use dynamic symbols to adjust the volume, attack and decay of the music notes.
B: Cue Lines This lines are used for creating chords within a composition. Its drawn as a dotted line so that users know that they can be connected. Once 2 or more composition area are connected, the user is no longer in the normal music composition mode, instead he/she enters into the “multiple instrument mode”, where he can compose for different instruments simultaneously.
This part also makes use of the natural affordance of dotted lines ( they can be connected ). It also exploits the convention that in the usual “master score sheet” for symphony music, for multiple instruments or chords, each score area is joined to the next by a vertical line at the beginning. This serves to make the new mode redundantly visible to the user so that errors can’t be performed because of it.
C: Title Area This is an OCR active area; all OCR areas in this interface are printed in light grey in order to have a consistent interface to the user. This is something which user have to learn about. The title area is boxed up by an outlined box so that the user knows that he/she can enter text into this area. It is also clearly labeled “title” so that users know exactly what they are entering into this text box.
The textbox is also a learnt affordance by many users. Although our target users may not be computer savvy, most knows how to use the internet and know what a textbox is.
D: Tag Area Tags are bits of meta-data which are used to organize the main document. The tag area allows users to enter up to 5 tags. This area is also bound by a textbox and printed in light grey to signify that it is an OCR-active area. Some of our users will probably not know what “tags” ( which is very much a web 2.0 term ) is, so we will have to specify this in the manual.
The box is divided by slid line into 5 different parts so that they form 5 mini sub boxes. The size of each box is about right for one word so that users will be naturally hinted to write one word into each box ( Even though the system can process multiple words ).
E: Preview Box This is the checkbox where the user can make a marking in order to send the data from the sheet to the cell phone where it would be played back. The checkbox can accept either a cross or a tick. The user can also check this checkbox multiple times in case he/she wants to preview the music while editing only halfway.
The checkbox is designed almost exactly like any checkbox in online forms. This makes use of the learnt affordance associated with checkboxes.
F: Instrument Selection Box This task is associated with element B: Cue Lines. When the user draws a line across the cue lines, he/she enters the multiple instrument editing mode. When this happens, the user can select which instrument is responsible for that part of the score by writing a symbol in this selection box. The symbol can then be assigned to any possible number of instrument preset in the playback software.
Since this element is associated with the multiple instrument editing mode, it touches the Cue lines which the users has to draw through. Its outlined is dotted to hint to the user that its related to the new mode.
Scenario 1: Composing a song with chords
Scenario 2: Editing a composition on the fly: delete some unwanted notes
Scenario 3: Previewing the composition
Analysis of Approach (5 pts)
This system not only provides the standard composition area that regular sheet music users are accustomed to, but also takes advantage of the unique affordances of the Anoto system by providing additional options that let the user interface with a computer before the work is actually on a computer. The user can preview a piece on a cell phone, which allows playback of multiple instruments simulataneously, a feat not possible using regular paper. Furthermore, the user can title the piece, "tag" it with information, and select instruments right on the paper. The information is automatically processed in an attempt to make the transition from paper to computer as smooth as possible. The system attempts to minimize the amount of additional formatting needed such that a user should be able to compose on Anoto paper, and upon uploading, have a digital copy that is immediately ready to be worked on.
Hypothetical Tablet PC solutions would not have the portability of paper, but would allow the handwriting of music. However, it has been shown that sheet music composers prefer the feel of paper and the ability to use it along with an instrument. They are also frustrated with the mouse precision required to click a note in editing software. Tablet PC solutions would require precision on the part of the user to write in a very small area on an unnatural-feeling computer display. They are also unwieldly - placing a Tablet PC on the music holder of a piano is a very precarious position to have a computer in!
As mentioned before, the pros of this system are that composers who like paper can continue to use people, but also allow them to use more powerful editing tools on the computer, and also that the transition from paper to digital and back to paper attempts to be as seamless as possible. Possible cons are that users may be restricted in how they write music in order for the system to under what they are trying to be doing. For example, if the command to delete a section is to draw a large 'X' over it, but the user usually crosses out his work in a zigzag fashion, he is liable to make an error. Also, system proposed above does not support other kinds of information frequently used by composers. For example, a classical music composer may write that his piece is to be played "Vivace", or lively. The system, apart from just including the note in the digital format (if the end digital format even supports them), cannot process this instruction to change the way the music is played on MIDI. Dynamic volume control is virtually impossible to interpret by computer - how do you adjust volume and speed to make something sound "lively?" The system provides ways to change the volume in a hard, well-defined way, something that classical composers are not likely to grow accustomed to.
