RE: [microsound] music in the digital age

[brad <brad@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Being directly involved with some of this stuff, I thought I'd chip in a few
pennies. :)

Interesting thread in my opinion...  I find it surprising that no-one has
raised the issue of the disparity between the business' aims and the
client's needs.  Each of these have multiple facets which makes it very
difficult to build up an "ideal" user interface or user experience.  Larger
companies like apple, Microsoft, real etc...  all have a vested interest in
making their products "cool" and pervasive.  It would be difficult to sell
iTunes as sexy if it was just a command line interface "itunes /play *.mp3".
I don't think grandma would very much appreciate that kind of an interface
to her media experience.  Also, exposing this type of an interface is
diversifying the types of problems and experiences the user can/will have
with the product.  Equally, selling a huge piece of software with every bell
and whistle imaginable (musicmatch) is just one of many many ways in which a
company pushes their own agenda to the detriment of the consumer.

Another major issue with the current market is the massive bloat which is
eroding a user's experience with digital content.  One primary example of
this is the recent issues with playback products such as winamp.  It was a
fantastic product for content playback, but to try to acquire a larger
market share, they cut into the very thing which defined them as an
"alternative" player, their small memory/screen footprint and their
effective user experience of "just play it damnit".

Articles/blogs like this iTunes analysis are fantastic in my opinion.  They
help to be a voice against which alternatives are out there and drive a
discussion more towards what COULD be present in the market and what
directions people may take a software interface.

Brad
P.S. yes I know, disorganized and rambling... I'm working on getting my
coffee in my system as I type :)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Alex Young [mailto:alex@xxxxxxx]
> Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2004 7:15 AM
> To: microsound
> Subject: Re: [microsound] music in the digital age
> 
> On Thu, 2004-02-12 at 14:44, tomoroh hidari stummer wrote:
> > i think one of the problems here might be the confusion of the words
> > "interface" with "graphical interface".
> 
> You might want to consider 'human interface' and then everything else.
> Then you can have things like peripherals (mice, joysticks, keyboards),
> the screen, the way they all work together, etc.
> 
> 
> > this is connected to a second point, that those designing the interface
> > often see it more as a feature to "sell" their product and not as a
> > necessity to use the product, therefore they try to make it appeal to
> > a target audience, as broad as possible.
> > everything is constructed to appeal at first sight, but has no depth
> > (personal configurability) for personal indentification(adaption). or
> > "everybody can use it, but few can put it to use properly".
> 
> People who design interfaces aren't marketing staff.  They are most
> likely familiar and possibly take part in research in Human Computer
> Interaction.  They attempt to understand how and why a user interacts
> with software a certain way, using ideas from psychology where possible
> (an obvious example is the 7 +/- 2 rule).
> 
> An example of what an interface designer might do is try to make certain
> aspects of their interface afford certain actions.  When you see a door
> knob, for example, it affords you putting your hand on it and turning
> it.  When you see something change colour when your mouse moves over it,
> it makes you want to click on it.
> 
> Commercial software is obviously influenced by the brand that produces
> the software, as users of software made by Apple, Propellerheads, Native
> Instruments and Steinberg will be aware.  However, this branding doesn't
> necessarily dictate how the interface should behave, which is a separate
> and very serious subject - not (just) an attempt to sell something.
> 
> > "meta-interfaces" or "lower level interfaces" in programs
> 
> Try doing:
> 
> define:"application program interface"
> define:"message passing"
> define:"interprocess communication"
> define:"web services"
> 
> with google for some interesting reading on this topic :)
> 
> --
> http://alex.bash.sh
> 
> 
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