Designing musical interactions for mobile systems

Abstract

Mobile music making is an area where many of the specific design challenges and specific affordances of mobile technologies can be explored. Music applications have often been at the forefront of research in social-interactive aspects of emerging technologies. Music, as a social activity and time-based medium makes demands in terms of intuitive and responsive interactions that later find relevance in other application domains. This workshop will discuss the specific interaction design challenges for deploying engaging and creative musical activities on mobile devices. These devices are characterised by powerful, but not unlimited processing power, touchscreen, small form factor, networking capability, embedded tilt, microphone, camera sensors, and compact GUI. The workshop will allow interaction designers, musicians, and developers who may not already be involved in mobile music development to engage with and learn about this rapidly developing field, and the design research methods that are at the core of creative mobile music applications.