Jukka Holm

Associating Colours with Musical Genres

Abstract To study visualizations for music, we arranged a set of online questionnaires on how people map various visual properties to certain musical attributes. This paper presents the results of a questionnaire that concentrated on how people map colours to musical genres. The participants were shown 12 colours one at a time, and asked which of listed 18 genres they associated with the given colours. The results suggest that it is not possible to design a globally accepted colour-genre mapping. Instead, the music player could be set-up with a default mapping that is most suitable for the given country or region.

Evaluating an avatar-based user interface for discovering new music

This paper studies the idea of using avatars as a user interface for discovering new music. In the evaluated prototype, the user builds an avatar from three parts (head, body and background). The appearance of each part reflects a certain musical genre. Based on the selected combination of parts, the application generates a new playlist of music by seeding a content-based music recommender with examples from the selected genres. In a user study with 40 participants, the prototype was considered to be entertaining and easy to use. The concept inspired users to explore new music and provided faster access to cross-genre playlists than traditional music player applications. In the longer term use, the prototype was slightly too simple and it would have benefited from, e.g., text-based search functionality. Several other interesting ideas for the future development of the concept were also received.

Associating Avatars with Musical Genres

Accessing personal and online music libraries with thousands of songs has become an everyday activity. Instead of textual lists, the libraries can also be accessed using graphical visualizations such as adaptive avatars. To develop the idea further, we designed 17 stereotypical avatars representing different musical genres. To study how well the avatars were recognized, an online questionnaire with 71 participants was arranged. This paper discusses the design of the avatars in more detail, explains which musical genres were selected for the study and why, and presents the results of the questionnaire.

Using Animated Mood Pictures in Music Recommendation

This paper studies the idea of using animated mood pictures in the context of music recommendation. In the implemented prototype, the user interacts with a collection of pictures to receive new music recommendations from associated genres. The prototype was evaluated by 40 Finnish participants. After the first use of the prototype, the concept of selecting music based on mood pictures was found to be very good by 85% of the participants. In the longer-term use, the prototype lacked some important features such as the ability to personalize the picture and music associations. Despite this, 60% of the participants were interested in using the prototype to complement their other music player applications. This indicates that mood pictures are a promising way to access music collections and to explore new music.

A Comparison of Methods for Visualizing Musical Genres

A well-designed visualization can make the exploration of music collections an intuitive and entertaining experience. In this paper, four different methods (colors, icons, fonts and avatars) for visualizing musical genres are presented and compared against each other. The performance of the different visualizations was studied in a series of online surveys with mostly Finnish participants, and the findings were then utilized in designing novel GUIs for an existing music recommendation system. Based on the results, the best performance can be achieved by combining different visualization methods together; while colors alone were not a good method for visualizing musical genres, the best performing method (avatars) was partially based on the findings of color and icon questionnaires. The easiest genre to visualize was metal; it performed best in both online questionnaires and practical prototype design.

Easy access to recommendation playlists: selecting music by exploring preview clips in album cover space

This paper studies the idea of selecting music by exploring preview clips in an album cover space. In the implemented prototype, the user listens to representative audio clips until the preferred musical style has been found, and the corresponding song is then used as a seed song for generating a new playlist of music recommendations. The prototype was evaluated by 40 Finnish participants. In the initial interview, the concept was seen as an innovative and a fast way to explore different types of music without deeper musical knowledge, and it was said that the beauty of the concept is the instant feedback that the user gets when moving in the album cover space. In the longer-term use, the prototype was considered to be less fun and it would have benefited from the possibility to search for individual songs or listen to full albums. Still, the majority of the participants would have wanted to continue using the prototype to complement their other music player applications.

A virtual world prototype for interacting with a music collection

This paper studies the idea of using virtual worlds as an interface to access music collections or music recommendation services. In the evaluated 3D prototype, the user moves around a city and interacts with various characters, the looks of which reflect the musical style that they are recommending. In a user study with 41 participants, it was learned that the concept did not fit well to most users music consumption habits, and using the prototype for only browsing music was considered to be too tedious and boring. The application should contain more activity and interactive elements, and there should be a clear goal to strive for. To develop the concept further, a better solution would be to modify an existing game or virtual world application by adding music recommendation capabilities.

Background music reactive games

In this paper, we discuss the concept of games that react to their background music. Instead of limiting the player to a fixed set of songs, the background music can be any song chosen from the players own music collection. Due to the relative simplicity of such existing game titles, we wanted to explore the potential of the concept more broadly in both digital audio and MIDI domains. Mappings between several musical and game parameters were studied by modifying two open-source games to react to their background music. The feedback collected with the game prototypes suggests that players appreciate the concept and find it entertaining. Based on the feedback and our experiments with different mappings, we present a set of design considerations for background music reactive games. The concept can be used to bring new life to existing games, and even a trivial game can be made interesting if the player can affect the game by changing the background music to his or her favorite song.

Designing for Music Discovery: Evaluation and Comparison of Five Music Player Prototypes

Abstract This article describes the evaluation and comparison of five prototypes designed for the discovery of new music. The prototypes were compared against each other using various qualitative and quantitative metrics, and the results were then used to formulate a set of design criteria for future music discovery applications. Based on the results of a user study with 40 participants, visually interesting user interfaces and new interaction paradigms can inspire users to explore music collections and provide playful and fun ways to find new music. Without textual search functionality, such applications should rather complement than replace traditional music-listening applications.

Evaluating a Potentiometer-Based Graphical User Interface for Interacting with a Music Recommendation Service

This paper studies the idea of using potentiometers as a graphical user interface for interacting with a music recommendation service. In the implemented prototype, the user selects a musical genre and adjusts tempo and energy level potentiometers to fine-tune the play list of new music recommendations. The look of the interface is changed to reflect the currently selected genre. In a user study with 40 participants, the idea of using potentiometers to access music collections was found to be suitable for discovering new music and to complement traditional music player applications. The prototype was seen to be easy to use and entertaining, and the graphical designs matched well with the musical genres. In the longer-term use, the prototype was slightly too simple and it would have benefited from e.g. text-based search functionality. Several other interesting ideas for the future development of the concept were also received.