This project was a full research project with a complete survey process and final paper. The main question for research was, “Is there an instinctual placement of parameter knobs in hardware audio systems, especially in audio majors vs non-majors?"  What this essentially meant was asking if there was a place where people expected certain parameters to go on electronic devices. 

    So much of the industry in audio products, such as guitar pedals and synthesizers, are based on tradition and best practice. There are certainly reasons for where things tend to go, but due to the status quo there is generally considered a correct order of putting knobs and inputs. My goal was to challenge these notions and really look to see if there was a correlation between the placement of knobs and their function.

    The way I went about this was building out several orientations of knobs and coming up with audio systems with parameters (guitar amplifier and digital synthesizer). I made a physical board with notches that I could place loose knobs into so the participant would be able to have a physical representation of the knob layout and really feel the space. I would give the participant a specific knob orientation and ask them where they think the parameters would go. I made sure they knew what the parameters did by having a build of the audio system next to me and showing the parameter change as I moved the knob. I would give them all of the orientations with 3 parameters, then 5 parameters and the goal was to try and stop them from just going left to right as some were purely vertical or were all in corners.

    I did this experiment with both audio major and non-audio major students at Columbia College Chicago so I could compare the difference between someone who had experience using audio equipment vs someone who does not. Using all the information I gathered, I was able to build heat maps for each parameter to see how each group placed the parameter knob for that parameter in that system. There are some interesting conclusions to be pulled out of this such as on the 3 parameter guitar amplifier. The audio group generally agrees that tone fits best in the center of an interface, but non-audio just as strongly agrees that tone is meant for the bottom left. Seeing these patterns could lead to some interesting design reseach.​

    Unfortunately, I was just not able to get enough subjects for testing in the deadline so I don't think I am able to fully conclude with any sure patterns, but there seems to be some patterns forming that I think with more research could show fully and be important in the field of interface design. Please read the paper if you're interested in looking over the full results or want more info about the survey process.

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