Lorna McKnight
ABSTRACT
While standard icons often exist for common tasks, it can be difficult to design meaningful icons for non-standard tasks. Following a desire to build a music application that does not rely on text-based instructions, this paper explores suitable iconic representations for a 'record music' function on a mobile device. A study was carried out with primary school children (aged 8--10) to explore their current understanding of icons and elicit their requirements. It was seen that they were familiar with common icons, but that audio recording remains a difficult concept to represent through icons alone.
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Index Terms
- Designing the 'record' button: using children's understanding of icons to inform the design of a musical interface
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