Are you simply referring to interfaces for the electronic sound-shaping within the keyboard? Or the piano keyboard itself as an interface?
Many have tried and failed in the past in this regard. What is the problem we are trying to solve with the piano keyboard? Are there frustrations other than the learning curve? The problem may lie with music education rather than with interacting with the keys themselves, because otherwise there is a one-to-one mapping between keys and the notes the generate. You could make a similar argument for the QWERTY keyboard layout-- what problem would we be we trying to solve in improving it? And what improvements could we make without changing the nature of the input altogether? Tom Chi calls these "Mastery Interfaces"-- you can read his article on the subject here: http://www.ok-cancel.com/archives/article/2004/07/on-unix-command-lines-and-pianos.html Also, speaking as a musician, I also don't think it's fair to say that the keyboard has taken over the place of an orchestra. Unless you have a monstrous setup similar to the one John Williams uses when he scores Hollywood blockbusters, most musicians will tell you that the live performance of an orchestra has no replacement (even John Williams switches to the real thing when it's time to record). The piano keyboard is a fundamental interface, and the people that have mastered it probably won't exhibit any observable frustrations that you could take back to the lab. The frustrations that beginners have with the instrument are most likely with understanding music and developing the fine motor training to use it, in similar fashion to the QWERTY keyboard. - N ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
