LarryRoth.net

Creating a music experience for the deaf

by on Feb.25, 2009, under Usability, Web

The kind folks at 80 works for designers take us behind the scenes to a class that is creating a prototype interface for deaf people to feel music.  It’s a wonderful read just to review the processes that the class uses to work through the problem domain. But more so, it is a great reminder that usability should include accessibility. Thoughts?

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  • http://www.paulasnyder.com Paula S

    Interesting article Larry! A deaf friend of mine used to have a radio pillow thing that she wore on her neck that sent vibrations into her body. It was way more low tech than a nifty touch screen interface, but it worked well and you know… it was the 80′s! The thing that struck me about this article is that I know my friend likes to “hear” the bass and brass as they are clearly the “strongest” parts of the music. I’m not sure how much she would get out of “hearing” a flute or wind chimes. I wonder what the benefit would be? Was the usefulness of the tool for the deaf community a factor here?

  • http://larryroth.net Larry Roth

    Hi Paula, Thanks for the comment. I believe the goal was to make something useful, just to try to make something usable. I think this was more exploratory in nature–specifically, how does one build an interface for music without using sound. To sort of disassociate the obvious feedback mechanism (audio) from the interface.

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