A huge Deluge user experience review
laikrodiz
Beta Tester Posts: 28
There’s something I’d like to present today, but a little backstory first. I love music, perform live and have a bunch of musical hardware at home. Deluge was one of my latest purchases, as I loved the demos I’ve seen online and had a change to play around on Superbooth.
It also happens I lead a team of about 20 designers in an enterprise software development company. And even though I was really impressed by the functionality, there were a lot of things that drew my attention as a designer. Software design (same as hardware, I assume) is not only about things looking subjectively good or bad. These categories are actually rarely used in designer conversations. It’s much more about user experience, consistency, scalability, continuity, error prevention and other stuff, that can be backed by a set of rules or so called heuristics. The interpretation of these heuristics might be slightly subjective, but at least there’s something to build the conversation around other than personal taste.
I spent around a month recently meticulously going through Deluge manual, pushing Deluge buttons and working on the user experience review that I present you today. The result is a 61-page document split into several sections. It contains my notes on possible UI and UX possible improvements based on Nielsen’s Heuristics methodology.
The review is based on version 3.0.5. Some of the items had already been addressed in the latest betas, but I assume my thoughts may still be valuable in a way. I’m not hoping all of the proposed changes to be implemented, as there’s a long backlog already and some of the items may require a substantial code refactoring effort first. But at least the problem statements may spark new ideas and point out areas worth paying attention to.
A lot of the items might have already appeared on the forums as feature requests, but I still list them here as I consider them important and my proposed solution may be different. There are a lot of feature requests in my mind that I didn’t include, as they don’t derive from any specific UX problem. I may also be wrong about some of the problems statements, as I can't call myself a power user, rather a researcher at the moment.
Comments
There's also a shorter review shortcuts in views that use linear placement of items. It's an internal document I used during the review.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/193cYFlzfPhC7apnif3QbmFMqix0zh9m1LUH33GIyPzI/edit?usp=sharing
Wow! That was a lot work. Thank you for this interesting document.
Odo Sendaidokai from Berlin
Amazing work, nice layout, clearly you do this every day. Here are my thoughts :
a) I try to use your format (don't laugh)
Problem Statement: Deluge is an extremely deep groove box with many many functions.
Some of them are not a perfect implementation. Yes, the Deluge feels like jack-of-all-trades-device at times but there is nothing like Deluge on the market.
Possible Solution: Take 1-2 of your developers, team-up and help Synthstrom to "fix" 40% of the problems. The rest, 60% of problems in your book describe a perfect product/instrument. There is no perfect instrument out there, there never will be one.
b) Problem Statement: Some features will not get implemented... A short story: I've tried a similar approach long back. I'm one of the first owners of this revolutionary product. After a while I quickly realized that Rohan & Co does not work for me and "suggestion" section on this forum with somewhat democratic approach of voting on features was the right approach to evaluate new features. I took this device on a very deep spin spending hundreds and hundreds of hours and I quickly observed that my deep ride with this device was an unique one,... thus the democratic approach for new features would not work for me.
Possible solution: I wish your PDF was not a PDF but a list of vote-able options. That would let you to evaluate your work with ham/spam thumbs up/down democratic approach. It would be a perfect validation of your analysis. After all that is usually the goal of the UX team right ?
c). Again I do appreciate your work a lot. It is very professional. I wish you had other devices and do this analysis on those as well. I see a bright future in this kind of service. There should be a "norm" or "set of rules" of UX design for non-computer electronic instruments, the same way as we are required to wear seat-belts in cars. No kidding... after 40+ years of machines with CPU, buttons/knobs and displays there should be at least two new categories for evaluation. a) "UX usability" b) workflow usability. Yes both are subjective but the industry is to blame for that. I guess the camera's industry is a few steps ahead, but of course there is more volume with cameras.
I own a lot of boxes so here is an example of my 1-10 OVERAL grades for companies (not products that list would be too long:)
d). A Revolutionary product cannot get created by "team of developers" ... ( I know we could discuss this for hours) It is always a genius-individual that creates these things. I wish for Synthstrom to have enough resources to have the Deluge to move to the maintenance team and give Rohan enough space to try "the next big thing" see if the "revolutionary product" can be repeated like in the cases of Korg/Elektron or even young Polyend companies
wow, inspired work, thank you. very impressive. still reading thru. looks good, if u ask me, Synthstrom could hire u as a UX consultant
question: is it possible you got a lot of content from the suggestions on this forum, like http://forums.synthstrom.com/discussion/2240/100-top-rated-suggestions ? i see a lot of similarities. some ideas appear new to me, very nice. did u intend to formalize some of the “hot” topics here? if so, a very noble thing to do! for me reading thru it would help if there was a link to existing suggestion threads because i understood most problems u list already. i could try to help you with links if u want.
Wonderful job laikrodiz, thank you very much.
The doc addresses many of what I frequently perceive as UX limitations. And many more I didn't even think about. I hope Rohan will have a look at this: fixing even a third of the issues reported here would bring the D to a whole new level, performance-wise. It would make a perfect 3.2 (or .x) release too, since most of the fixes are actually "consolidation/coherence" changes that require no (small?) new features but would dramatically improve the gap you sometimes find between the way you'd do it and the way the machine wants to do it.
This gap is what prevents other wonderful piece of hardware to be fun/pleasant/possible to use and that's where the Deluge really shines: to me, no other machine (PC included) has the immediacy of the D when it comes to create. But the more I dig it, the more I find these nasty little bumps on the road that requires a "mental lookup" (when not a "manual lookup") for the exceptions that kills the flow. And the D is all about that flow.
Thanks again for your work!
read thru it now, i could offer some feedback, a few statements are wrong.
@laikrodiz what was ur intention posting it here, u want to elaborate further here? confused u never came back.
if u went off to FB or internal Synthstrom channels, fare well
Hey. I'm not a frequent forum guest, but here I am. I've posted this doc here for discussion mostly, as its main destination was Ronan & Ian which got it by email. I'd love to hear your thoughts, especially on wrong problem statements as they may also help me get better with Deluge in it's current state.
Thanks! Synthstrom has slightly different product philosophy, I guess. They have a vision, and it doesn't really include consultants
That's fine. We all can only propose.
I haven't really read through items on the forum, as it would make me biased. The proper way to run a UX review is actually including at least three reviewers using the same methodology and see which of their findings match, so it's not a surprise, I've found something that has already been mentioned on the forums. The value in this case, I suppose, would be my view at solving the problem, as I have some expertise in the area.
What does UX acronym means ?
Your line of thinking is very close to that of mine. Deluge is amazing even at current state. It's important to remember though, that development is an iterative process and there are many dependencies, so some things may look simple in theory but may require a lot of code refactoring to be done properly.
User Experience.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_experience_design
Much appreciated, thanks for your answers, mate. Very cool work and I am happy if I can add some hopefully helpful feedback. As I am reading loads of threads here since a while, I was looking for fresh ideas. Also nice to see an UX expert seemed to struggle with some stuff that bugs me too.
In general I was most impressed by many new, small consistency and workflow details that seem easy but they really add up I think. A few of them might have be mentioned before but never in a such profound way. #Moving Line Instance, #Stutter Removal Irreversibility, #Browsing Additional Effect Settings, #Quick Parameter Reset, #Mute Focuses Track, #Undo of Mutes, #Exiting Menus, #Default Kit Sound, #Knob Press Redundancy, #Arrangement Nudge Shortcut, #Section Color Change Shortcut
About wrong problem statements, my opinion:
General Workflow
End of Bar Change
Error
"the track has to finish playing the loop which might be quite long."
Took me a while to get. The interval for arming clips and sections depends on the longest clip in the current selection AND in the armed selection of clips. The actual length is not always a full loop, it can be a partial loop (old manual explains it the best).
Collected Media Indication
Error
"Songs may be saved with all media collected into a single folder. There’s no indication of
this fact after the song had been saved though."
As a result of Collect media a new song file is generated.
"If the user prefers to store all his tracks with media"
I don't think this is an expected use case. Collect media is meant to be used to backup Songs and move them to another SD card. Not to organize Song related files in a project folder. If a song file generated by Collect media is resaved all samples are stored to the original file paths.
Effects
Stutter Blocking Behaviour
Info
Newest beta allows muting of kit rows now
“Affect Entire” Behaviour Inconsistency
Unclear
I don't get what you mean. If Affect Entire is on in Kit mode, golden params only affect the Kit effect chain, not individual Kit row effect chains. A/R params are disabled in Affect Entire Kit mode.
Modulation FX Settings Inconsistency
Error
"If user presses the golden modulation knob in Song View, the Chorus effect is instantly
turned on."
It is not always instantly turned on. It jumps to individual effect depth value saved with the Song, defaults to 25.
Clip View
“Ghost” Sounds Indication
Info
Cool, I did not not know I can bring back deleted rows this way.
"presumably using additional memory."
Absolutely, found this to be a huge hidden memory hog. For me the Deluge biggest conceptional challenge are cloned clips (clips of the same instrument).
http://forums.synthstrom.com/discussion/2526/all-parameter-changes-affect-all-clones/p1
Note Timing
Info
Done in the newest beta.
Song View & Arranger
Triplets View in Song View
Info/Error
Don't know if there is a real use case, if I would compose all my clips in triplet mode it is good to have the option in Song mode.
I agree. I have invested a lot of time to upvote, challenge and interconnect suggestions to facilitate the upvote system. Ian said, he doesnt really count the votes but top 10/20 do make an impact. just looking at the stats 2017-19 http://forums.synthstrom.com/discussion/2240/100-top-rated-suggestions-2017-2019, out of 21 implemented user suggestions 4 were in the top 20. dont hang me on these numbers, a lot of room for interpretation. just for the business you dont want to implement what a small percentage of users wants, you want to support users that do stuff which results in increasing sales. I cant help with that, I do not aim to contribute to a business standpoint. I aim to contribute to a product standpoint because I believe quality pays off in the long term - I dont really know the business of boutique music gear though. I have seen (and owned) many extinct, no-compromise quality products and many promising companies not being able to keep up the business.
for the voting system here, i think there should be a plan how to handle upvoted threads. one thing is the transition from a collection of competing ideas to an actual software feature. from my profession I know its not good if all users ask for actual implementations because they dont know the context of the code. users should rather write and upvote problem statements, not solutions.
for example: solution: I need a compressor.
problem statements: audio dynamics effects for individual sounds, more ‘oohmph’ for the master signal, hard limiter to prevent physical damage on ears and speaker, ..
that being said of course it helps if problem solutions are expressed, makes problem statements more understandable and there are loads of UX, design, etc. experts here that can really add solutions that Rohan might overlook.
by now I feel upvoting is rather a waste of time for me. no blame, I am sure Synthstrom has the best intentions.
I like ur mindset funktree, thanks for the honesty and i think u nailed the situation pretty well. there is a genius at work, otherwise the D would not exist. I have to capitalize on the fact Rohan did not seem to need anybody to create something awesome and the more freedom for a genius the better for us all
This is overwhelmingly awesome work. Thank you! I hope, all of the (remaining) points getting implemented soon.