There are many parameters that we chose to incorporate in this prototype. Maybe too many for newcomers. The space is full of colors, moving orbs, rectangular frequency graphs, filter bands, sun & nebula. Interface wise, keeping the volume and panning function on the X-Z plane caused some distraction on understanding EQ. In fact, we questioned ourselves: is it necessary to keep volume and panning functions to interpret EQ? If not, why not “audio square”?
The 2 modes of EQ both have it’s advantages:
3-Band EQ gives guests the power to interact with low, mid, high frequencies, which is rich in interaction. Guests can understand the EQ concept in more creative and different ways. However, the visual feedback of opacity change while interacting with the filter bands was not noticeable enough, resulting in lots of confusion before explaining it to the guests.
Simple EQ simplifies the EQ concept by applying “adjectives” bright (sun) and muddy (nebula) onto tracks. The interaction and visualizations are straightforward and easy to understand. Yet, some may wonder what are the changing parameters while applying sun or nebula? Applying it sounds different, is it the volume change? How does the frequency change?