Chapter 8 Conclusion
A.1 Exploratory User Study Structure
A.1.1 Introduction about the Exploratory User Study
You are taking part in an experimental study using a system called MusicPinta. MusicPinta provides information about musical instruments, album recordings, artists, and reviews. MusicPinta allows browsing through the following data sets:
MusicOntology - provides main concepts and properties for describing music, albums, tracks, performances and arrangements.
MusicBrainz - a community-maintained open source encyclopaedia of music information (e.g. artists and their releases and recordings).
Jamendo - a community site for download music albums under creative commons licence. Megatunes – information about artists, tracks and album records.
Amazon reviews – reviews for selected instruments.
You will be asked to explore three musical instruments from different national cultures using MusicPinta.
The study includes four steps:
Step 1. Pre-study questionnaire - 5 min
An outline of your profile and your familiarity in the music domain. Step 2. Introduction to MusicPinta - 5 min
You will explore the information about an example instrument. Step 3. Conduct your exploration - 30 min
You will be asked to explore three musical instruments from different national cultures using MusicPinta.
Step 4. Post-study Interview - 5 min
An overall impression about your exploration.
Your participation is anonymous; the data collected will be stored safely and used solely for research purposes.
Thank you very much for taking part in this study. As a small gesture of gratitude for your time after the completion of the study, you will receive a 10£ Amazon voucher.
A.1.2 Pre-study questionnaire
Are you a:
Male Female What is your age group?
18–24 25–34 35–44 45–54 55-64 Over 65 What is your nationality? ____________________
How often do you use the web for exploration (e.g. investigating new/unfamiliar topics that you want to increase your knowledge about or looking for places to visit or looking for items to bye). never
daily - at least once a day weekly - at least once a week monthly - at least once a month
occasionally – once in a while, not on a regular basis
Have you played any musical instrument(s)? Yes No
If yes, please list which one(s):_____________________________________________________ How often do you read online materials about music (e.g. instruments, events and
performances)? never
daily - at least once a day weekly - at least once a week monthly - at least once a month
occasionally – once in a while, not on a regular basis How often do you listen to music?
never
daily - at least once a day weekly - at least once a week monthly - at least once a month
occasionally – once in a while, not on a regular basis
What is your familiarity level with String Musical Instruments? High (You have good knowledge and have played a string instrument(s)). Medium (You have some knowledge and have listened to string instruments). Low (You have limited knowledge and have seen some string instruments). Non of the above
What is your familiarity level with Wind Musical Instruments? High (You have good knowledge and have played a wind instrument(s)). Medium (You have some knowledge and have listened to wind instruments). Low (You have limited knowledge and have seen some wind instruments). Non of the above
What is your familiarity level with Percussion Musical Instruments?
High (You have good knowledge and have played on a percussion instrument(s)). Medium (You have some knowledge and have listened to percussion instruments). Low (You have limited knowledge and have seen some percussion instruments). Non of the above
A.1.3 Introduction to MusicPinta (Exploration Example about ‘Table’)
To familiarise you with MusicPinta, you will explore the musical instrument 'Tabla'
Perform the following steps: ** THINK OUT LOUD DURING YOUR EXPLORATION. 1. Login to MusicPinta as (user___) and your password is (musicpinta ).
2. Click on MusicPinta’s button (on top of the screen). 3. Enter the word 'Tabla' in the search area, and click button (see figure 1).
4. PLEASE WAIT until you see the result page with information about 'Tabla' (see figure 2). Figure 1: Semantic search area in MusicPinta Figure 2: Result page of 'Tabla'
5. Notice the three section with information about 'Tabla':
a. Description of 'Tabla', extracted from MusicPinta’s music knowledge resource. b. Features of 'Tabla', provide categories from MusicPinta which 'Tabla' belongs to. c. Relevant information to 'Tabla', provides terms and features from MusicPinta relevant to
'Tabla'.
** We are NOT using the Reviews section in this study.
6. Click on Description: See the page and read the description of ‘Tabla’ from Wikipedia.
7. Click on Features: See the page and read the categories that ‘Tabla’ belongs to. You may need to scroll down to see all links.
8. Click on Relevant information:See the page and read similar instrument that shares features with ‘Tabla’. You may need to scroll down to see all limns.
REMEMBER: At any point you can go back using the BACK BUTTON of your browser. Search tasks may take time. please be patient when you click on the selected links and wait until MusicPinta loads the corresponding information.
A.1.4 Conduct Your Exploration
Explore the musical instrument 'Oud' using the D-Strategy. 1. Pre-knowledge Test
- What comes in your mind when you hear the word 'Oud' ? - What musical instrument categories does 'Oud' belong to?
- What musical instruments are similar to 'Oud'?
2. Instrument Exploration (e.g. explore the instrument ‘Oud’ using D-Strategy).
a. Go to 'Semantic Search' in MusicPinta and type the word 'Oud', and click 'Go'. b. Read all content of 'Description', 'Features' and 'Relevant information'. List to the
experimenter what you recognise.
c. From features of 'Oud', click on 'String Instruments', and repeat step (b). d. From relevant information of 'string instruments' click on 'Guitar', and repeat step (b).
e. From features of 'Guitar' click on 'Plucked String Instruments', and repeat step (b). f. From 'Plucked String Instruments' click on 'Bouzouki', and repeat step (b).
3. Post-knowledge Test
- What comes in your mind when you hear the word 'Oud'? - What musical instrument categories does 'Oud' belong to?
- What musical instruments are similar to 'Oud'? Questions of exploration experience
- Which of the aspect(s) bellow relate to your exploration?
Frustrating Interesting Enjoyable Boring Confusing Informative
- What unexpected and interesting things did you find about your journey? _______________________________________________________________ - Did the exploration expanded your knowledge?
LOWEST HIGHEST
Justify your score:_________________________________________
-How diverse was the content you have explored? LOWEST
HIGHEST
Justify your score: __________________________________________
- How mentally demanding was this exploration (e.g. how much mental and perceptual activity was required – thinking, deciding, calculating, remembering, looking, searching)?
LOWEST HIGHEST
Justify your score: _________________________________________
- How hard did you have to work in this exploration (e.g. how much mentally and physically effort)?
LOWEST HIGHEST Justify your score:
___________________________________________________________ - How discouraged, irritated, stressed and annoyed you were in this exploration?
LOWEST HIGHEST
Justify your score:__________________________________________
How successful do you think you were in this exploration (e.g. how confident you are you’re your answers in the Post-exploration knowledge-questions?)
LOWEST HIGHEST
Justify your score: _________________________________________ A.1.5 Post-study Interview
Did you have any problems using MusicPinta for exploration? No problems
Minor problems Major problems
Write any comments you have about this study