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Music Software & Interface Design: Steinberg's Dorico

Tantacrul2 HN recommenders · recommended in 2 months, 2020–2021
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commentary · general · 2020–2021 on HN

Tantacrul critiques the UX and UI of Steinberg's Dorico music notation software, comparing it with Sibelius and user testing it with real musicians alongside his own attempt to compose in it.

HN recommends it as a rigorous, entertaining example of interface design review and notes the author later became head of design at MuseScore.

UX & UI designMusic theory, synthesis & production#uxreview#musicnotation#dorico#usertesting

5 comments from Hacker News

@guitarbill2021-04 · in “I’m now in charge of Audacity [video]”

The MuseScore video is part entertainment, part critique. Personally, I don't think it's fair to dismiss it so quickly. He's very knowledgable in the field of music notation software, and is in a smaller niche of having used several of them professionally (most people stick to one or two). In another video on Dorico [0], he did user testing. So he's not just pulling things out his ass. It's easy to hate. MuseScore is better due to his involvement. The FOSS community should be more welcoming to UX devs in general, and especially who have a methodical approach and actually listen. Maybe wait and reserve judgement. [0] ▶ this video

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@ohazi2020-11 · in “Update on MuseScore 3.6 and 4.0”

For those out of the loop: Tantacrul is a composer who put together some hilariously scathing UI/UX video reviews for some popular composing software tools out there, including MuseScore [1] [2] [3]. The team developing MuseScore then brought him on as head of design. [1] Sibelius: link [2] MuseScore: link [3] Dorico: ▶ this video

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@lifthrasiir2021-05 · in “Audacity: Actions we propose to take on PR 835”

Tantacrul, the project lead for both MuseScore and Audacity, is a professional UI/UX designer and has once conducted a significant first-time user testing for Dorico [1], so I'm pretty sure that he already knows what you are saying. Given his latest video about Audacity [2] though, I guess that Audacity has a very diverse user base and it might be hard to do the user testing while accounting for that diversity (the article you've linked specifically mention this issue). [1] ▶ this video [2] link (includes an interview with original Audacity developers)

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@jasode2021-03 · in “Music Software and Bad Interface Design: Avid’s Sibelius (2018) [video]”

Well, the founders of Sibelius created another music notation software called Dorico[1]. Is Dorico's UI more consistent? Does it address many of the issues of this video's criticism? Or put another way, does being a green-field software project allow the freedom to create a sane UI? Or did it have to deliberately copy may of Sibelius' faults so migrating users can quickly get up to speed with Dorico? (Analogous to MS Excel copying Lotus 123 buggy leap year of 1900 to be more compatible.) EDIT -- just noticed same uploader also made a 1 hour video about Dorico[2] but not sure if answers my questions. [1] link [2] ▶ this video

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@Nullabillity2020-05 · in “Linux Sucks 2020”

Tantacrul did one on MuseScore[0] (a music composing program), and ended up getting hired as their head of design[1]. [0]: link [1]: Mentioned in ▶ this video , but don't have the exact timestamp

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