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Investigation of User Interface Theory

Description
The quality of user interface designs largely depends on the aptitude of the designer. The ability to generate mental abstract models and characterize a target user audience helps greatly when conceiving a design. The dry cleaning point-of-sale industry lacks quality user interface designs. These impaired interfaces were compared with textbook…

The quality of user interface designs largely depends on the aptitude of the designer. The ability to generate mental abstract models and characterize a target user audience helps greatly when conceiving a design. The dry cleaning point-of-sale industry lacks quality user interface designs. These impaired interfaces were compared with textbook design techniques to discover how applicable published interface design concepts are in practice. Four variations of a software package were deployed to end users. Each variation contained different design techniques. Surveyed users responded positively to interface design practices that were consistent and easy to learn. This followed textbook expectations. Users however responded poorly to customization options, an important feature according to textbook material. The study made conservative changes to the four interface variations provided to end-users. A more liberal approach may have yielded additional results.
ContributorsSmith, Andrew David (Author) / Nakamura, Mutsumi (Thesis director) / Gottesman, Aaron (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2014-05
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Automating Music Composition

Description
The goal of this product was to create a highly customizable application in which any individual, musician or not, can create a harmony for the user’s melody. This Automating Music Composer is built on the underlying rules of music composition, rules that are unique for each type of music available.…

The goal of this product was to create a highly customizable application in which any individual, musician or not, can create a harmony for the user’s melody. This Automating Music Composer is built on the underlying rules of music composition, rules that are unique for each type of music available. This program is built on rules that are similar to how a Finite State Machine works (Fig 1). Each state represents a different chord in a given key, where the first roman numeral represents the first note in the chord progression. Each transition represents the action that can be taken by the chord progression, or the next note that can be reached by the current note. The user is able to manipulate these rules and styles, adjust different musical parameters to their liking, and is able to input their own melody, which then will output a unique harmony. This product aims to bridge the gap between predictive technologies and musical composition. Allowing the user to be more involved in the composition process helps the program to act as a tool for the user, rather than a separate entity that simply gives the user a completed recording. This allows the user to appreciate and understand what they are helping to produce more than they would if they were to simply be an inactive consumer of a random music composer. This product is meant to feel like an extension of the user, rather than a separate tool.
ContributorsKumar, Dhantin (Co-author) / Lopez, Christian (Co-author) / Nakamura, Mutsumi (Thesis director) / Blount, Andrew (Committee member) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05