Characters for my sequence player

Symbol Face > Symbol Sound



Woman Face > Woo Sound



Drum Face > Drum Sound



Rice Face > Rice Sound


Pasta Face > Pasta Sound

DJ Face > DJ Sound

Flash Sample Player Development Ideas

After lots of researching and experimenting with ideas, I have finally managed to come up with some sounds and characters. I recorded sounds using an external microphone and made some of my own instruments! (If you can call them instruments) and then put them into Garage Band to alter the sounds to a better quality.

Sounds made with my own instruments and the characters to go with the sounds:

+ Pasta (Pasta Face)

+ Rice (Rice Face)

+ Salt (Salt Face)

Sounds Recorded from Cyber Piano:

+ Scratching on Vinyl (DJ Face)

+ "WOO" (Woman Face)

+ Drum Beat (Drummer Face)

Flash Game - Storyboard

Interactive Design - Spider Diagram

After doing the spider diagram I came to the conclusion that I didn't want to make a traditional flash player, but more like a sample player, with visuals. I will have to see if this is suitable for the brief before i look into it more. The main idea is that the keys on the keyboard will be connected to a sample sound. As the keys are pressed, a box will move on the screen. The visuals will then reflect the sound being made and vise-versa.

Project One: Behaviour and Response.

Brief

Create an interactive Flash-based sample player with original recorded sound.
Keywords: Human Computer Interaction (HCI), interface design, sound

Assessment Requirements:

• Upload the finished sample player on the Multimedia Student Server

• Online project journal entries

• Project evaluation (500 words, PDF format)

Handing in/upload date: 10/12/07 @ 10am

Research

http:/components.develpers4web.com/mp3-flash-player

This is the most standard flash player I could find.

The basic functions include:

+ Pause Button

+ Play Button

+ Stop Button

+ Skip Button

+ Volume Button

+ Left to Right Speaker Button

+ Toggle Repeat / Shuffle

Seeing With Sound

http://www.seeingwithsound.com/javoice.htm

The website claims to provide vision for the totally blind.

I made my own name by using the white dots to create sound for my name. The sound produced was quite irritating and I'm not really sure how it can resemble the pattern.

This would not serve as an example of a sample flash player although I did enjoy the level of human interactivity and the links with the different shapes with the sound.

Andras Szonyi

http://soundart.c3.hu/pages/pictureSitesE/page3_1.html

This artist uses interaction for the purpose of art, with beautiful drawings linked with sound to create an unusual internet experience. I liked this idea and would like to incorporate art into my own interface rather than just creating a standard flash player with sliders and knobs.

Flash Sample Player Examples

http://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm?navid=174&langid=100&itemid=5222

This was the flash player I liked the most, although couldn't actually use it until I had paid for it, which I was not going to do. The interface appeared to be quite well laid out with out overcomplicating the display and simple, sharp colours to make it appear sophisticated and professional.

http://www.manytone.com/

Unlike the previous example this player appears instantly more cluttered and complicated for the user. However, it's target audience is for a more advanced musician, so I guess they would understand this more than myself.

http://www.womenindocs.com/samples.html

I chose this as an example of a flash player I don't want to end up making. The design is simple, not to mention boring, and it had to connect to an separate audio player to play the selected track.

Useful Websites

http://www.eyemagazine.com/review.php?id=18&rid=566

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/web-design-tactics

Interactive Design - Task 2 - Website Analysis

Spend sometime browsing the websites of IDEO, Sony & Apple. Do not
just look at the design (though that is useful); Look at the products they
are talking about and the philosophy of the design approach. Collect
together your favorites and discuss on your online journal

Think about a range of issues about the site:
What does it look like?
How easy is it to use?
How relevant is the content of the site?
How clearly the content is organised?

www.ideo.com

The first thing that stuck me about the IDEO site was the size of the site. It only filled one half of my screen, making navigation around the site more complicated that need be. Presuming it could be the Mozilla browser i was using, opened the site also in Internet Exploer and the sizing was even worse than before.

Mozilla Firefox:


Internet Explorer:


Besides from this, the website is very easy to use, containing useful information about the company. The website is full of visual examples, as well as written, with easy navigations through sideshows for pictures and drop-down menus.

www.apple.com 

Currently apple have upgraded the Tiger Systems to the new Leopard System on Mac OS X, and this is the first thing that shows up on the website. The tabs at the top of the site direct the customer to all the Apple products and the layout is the same as the tabs on a Mac, so PC users can get a feel for using a mac. Navigation around the site is easy, and stress free with the perfect amount of information about the products, and not too much about the history of Apple. The products are easy to find, with scrolling panels with pictures of the products too. 

Having recently purchased from the Mac site, I have to say that it is not the most simple ordering system. The Apple store constantly refreshes to become the US store (even though you have clicked UK many times) and when ordering an education discount you have to enter the name of the university and the city too many times to confirm on each product. Even then it decides to refresh back to the US site so all the prices are again in US Dollars rather than the British Pound. I found this quite frustrating but this was just the beginning. When trying to access the purchased items basket, the items in the account often disappeared, and when tracking the order once the items had eventually been purchased they didn't show up. I received an email saying the items would be delivered any time within the next two weeks, which was also frustrating as it meant I would have to stay in to sign for the packages. Overall I would find it much easier to order off a much simpler site rather than the Apple site itself.