Copyright: © 2013 Mycroft et al. This is an open-access article dis- tribu- ted under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0 Unported, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The Influence of Graphical User Interface Design on Critical Listening Skills Josh Mycroft, Joshua D. Reiss, Tony Stockman Centre for Digital Music, Queen Mary’s, University of London. j.b.mycroft@qmul.ac.uk ABSTRACT Current Digital Audio Workstations include increasingly complex visual interfaces which have been criticised for focusing user’s attention on visual rather than aural mo- dalities. This study aims to investigate whether visual interface complexity has an influence on critical listening skills. Participants with experience mixing audio on com- puters were given critical listening tests while manipulat- ing Graphical User interfaces of varying complexity. Re- sults from the study suggest that interfaces requiring the use of a scroll bar have a significant negative effect on critical listening reaction times. We conclude that the use of scrolling interfaces, by requiring users to hold infor- mation in working memory, can interfere with simultane- ous critical listening tasks. These results have implica- tions for the design of Digital Audio Workstations espe- cially when using small displays. 1. BACKGROUND In current Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) design, unlimited track counts, multiple effects plug-ins and a large number of conceptual additions have resulted in increasingly complex interfaces [1]. It has been suggested that this increased interface complexity risks focusing user’s attention on the visual display to the cost of aural engagement [2], with many DAW users opting to turn off the VDU at times during mixing [3]. This paper highlights some of the perceptual and creative implications of mixing using screen based interfaces then proceeds to report the findings from a study designed to quantify the influence of Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) design on aural acuity. Participants with experience mix- ing audio on computers were given critical listening tests while manipulating GUIs of varying complexity. The results were analysed to see whether the visual presenta- tion style influenced the critical listening skills typical of those required in audio mixing workflows. 2. INTRODUCTION The increasing visual complexity of current DAWs has potential consequences for the successful mixing of au- dio. In creative terms, the need to navigate through sever- al windows risks inhibiting the engagement and ‘flow’ of the mixing process. For example, they may impede the user’s ability to make requisite adjustments such as pan, level and effects changes [4]. Furthermore, the interface may compromise the realisation of creative ideas, which due to their fleeting nature are ‘lost’ when the user has to negotiate a badly implemented GUI. [5]. In perceptual terms, the large amount of information on the screen and the navigation required to access it across multiple windows can place high cognitive load on short- term and working memory [6] and overload the limited capacities of the visual mechanism [7]. The large amount of visual detail within the interface may also bias the per- ception of auditory information in favour of visual infor- mation [8]. For example, Macdonald and Lavie [9] found that when test subjects made either a low or high-load visual discrimination concerning a cross shape (respec- tively, a discrimination of line colour or of line length with a subtle length difference) the participant’s ability to notice the presence of a simultaneously presented brief pure tone was significantly reduced (79% in the high- visual-load condition, significantly more than in the low- load condition). In a similar study Dehais et al [10] found a link between complexities of the GUI and reduced aural awareness. In flight simulations 57 % of trained pilots failed to notice auditory alarms under high visual load conditions. The authors suggest that visual information processing interfered with concurrent appraisal of audito- ry alarms, thereby inducing ‘Inattentional Deafness’ [9]. In order to ameliorate the effect of visual overload when using these GUIs, they suggest a temporary simplification of the user interface (Cognitive Countermeasures) to re- dress this problem [11]. Given the complex visual presentation of many contem- porary DAWs (with scrolling and window switching a major part of the interface navigation) and the increased use of small screen displays for music and audio mixing (such as Cubasis, Auria, Nanostudio and FL Studio Mo- bile) it may prove insightful to quantify how GUI com- plexity influences the speed and accuracy of critical lis- tening tasks typical of audio mixing workflows. In so doing it is hoped that heuristics may be realised that acknowledge the perceptual limitations of the user, de- crease cognitive load and minimise the extraneous com- plexity of the interface encroaching on the intrinsic com- plexity of the user’s main task [12]. 146 Proceedings of the Sound and Music Computing Conference 2013, SMC 2013, Stockholm, Sweden