An initial usability assessment for symbolic haptic rendering of music parameters

Current methods of playlist creation and maintenance do not support user needs, especially in a mobile context. Furthermore, they do not scale: studies show that users with large mp3 collections have abandoned the concept of playlists. To remedy the usability problems associated with playlist creation and navigation – in particular, reliance on visual feedback and the absence of rapid content scanning mechanisms – we propose a system that utilizes the haptic channel. A necessary first step in this objective is the creation of a haptic mapping for music. In this paper, we describe an exploratory study addressed at understanding the feasibility, with respect to learnability and usability, of efficient, eyes-free playlist navigation based on symbolic haptic renderings of key song parameters. Users were able to learn haptic mappings for music parameters to usable accuracy with 4 minutes of training. These results indicate promise for the approach and support for continued effort in bo...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: ICMI
• Authors: Meghan Allen, Jennifer Gluck, Karon E. MacLean, Erwin Tang
• Keywords: Haptic Mappings, Haptic Playlist System, ICMI 2005, Playlist Creation