Analysis of conceptual metaphors to improve music software: the role of prior experience in inclusive music interaction

An open challenge for interaction designers is to find ways of designing software solutions capable of enhancing the ability of users with differing levels of knowledge and capabilities to perform tasks that normally require specialised domain expertise. This challenge is particularly demanding in areas such as music analysis, where complex, abstract, domain-specific concepts and notations occur. One promising theoretical foundation for this work involves the identification of what are assumed to be conceptual metaphors and image schemas. These constructs are grounded in prior sensory-motor experiences of space, force, orientation and interactions with other bodies and are identified through analysing discourse. These theories have already been applied with some success both to musical concepts and, separately, to user interface design with the intention of creating more intuitive designs through exploiting these prior sensorymotor experiences. However, the present work appears to be the first to combine these hitherto distinct bodies of research. We hypothesise that if we can identify the conceptual metaphors and image schemas used by musical experts to structure their understanding of music, we can utilise this information to develop a general theoretical framework to aid designers in systematically improving their designs, providing a foundation for inclusive music interaction design and thus opening up software normally restricted to domain experts to a wider and more varied user population. A possible methodology for the development of such a framework is discussed along with details of a study to apply the conceptual metaphors and image schemas used by a small group of experienced musicians to an evaluation of Harmony Space.