Evaluating a Cube-Based User Interface for Exploring Music Collections

This paper studies the idea and feasibility of using a cube metaphor as a graphical user interface for exploring large music collections. In the implemented prototype, new music recommendations and related information are generated on the different faces of the cube based on the selected genre. In a user study with 40 participants, the cube was seen as an interesting and playful new concept that has great potential as a user interface. The prototype was considered to be inspiring and fun, and the participants appreciated to see extra information related to the currently playing track/artist. In the longer-term use, the prototype would have benefited from, e.g., text-based search functionality. Several other interesting ideas for the future development of the concept were also received.