Using the Internet to Make

Local Music More Available to

the South Wales Community
Jonathan Bishop
Centre for Research into Online Communities and E-Learning Systems, Belgium
Lisa Mannay
Centre for Research into Online Communities and E-Learning Systems, UK

ABSTRACT
Wales is the land of the poets so soothing to me, according to its national anthem. The political and
economic landscape does not on the whole provide for the many creative people that are in Welsh communities. Social media Websites like MySpace and YouTube as well as Websites like MTV.com, eJay,
and PeopleSound, whilst providing space for artists to share their works, but do not usually consider
the needs of local markets, such as in relation to Welsh language provision through to acknowledgement
of Welsh place names and Waless status as a country. The chapter finds that there are distinct issues
in relation to presenting information via the Web- or Tablet-based devises and suggests some of the
considerations needed when designing multi-platform environments.

INTRODUCTION
There are literally thousands of people that want
to make it in the music industry, as highlighted by
the recent success of television programmes such
as Pop Stars, Pop Idol and the X-Factor. Wales is
a country known for its love of music in English
or Welsh. Founders of Wales two biggest Welsh
language record labels are, however established
in the Welsh language live music scene, which
is not easily accessible to all (Edwards, 2011).
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-6038-0.ch005

Since the creation of the World Wide Web, many

Websites claiming to give musicians a better
chance of getting a record deal have come online.
In addition to these hundreds of commercial sites,
the availability of Web site creation software has
meant that musicians can create their own Web
sites to showcase their work, though these often
look unprofessional. The popular commercial
Websites allow musicians to promote themselves
to a large audience. However, these sites appear
to be targeted mainly at artists of music, with the


Using the Internet to Make Local Music More Available to the South Wales Community

consumer facing a complicated and difficult task

to navigate each interface. Indeed, the number of
people educated in Wales taking part in the music
scene is a lot less than Scotland and England (Sturman, Rowe, Sainsbury, Wheater, & Kerr, 2012).
There are perhaps two main issues that put a
barrier between people and information; access to
it and the ability to access it. Information inequality
is not a new phenomenon. This type of inequality
has existed ever since the development of writing and it will probably remain. Perhaps we will
even have to accept that the fact that information
inequality will increase in the network society
(van Deursen & van Dijk, 2011; Van Dijk, 2005).
An easy answer to removing this relatively new
form of information inequality would be to give
everyone access to an Internet-enabled device, but
would people necessarily have the skills to use
this technology? In the age of the iPad, iPhone,
and affordable yet usable Android-based systems
the answer is probably yes.

Minority Cultures and the Internet

Minority cultures are not often considered in
relation to Website design, where are often unable to consider the individual needs or others.
This can include misrepresentation such as when
stereotypical, misleading or incorrect information
is provided about a minority culture (Cunliffe,
2007). However, social network services such
as Facebook might be important environments
for minority language maintenance, as networks
of strong ties may help speakers resist pressures
towards language shift (Honeycutt & Cunliffe,
2010). Even so, it has been found that almost 90
per cent of the young people interviewed used
Social networking services regularly, and the
language they used on these sites reflected to a
large extent the language they used with contacts
in the real world (Morris, Cunliffe, & Prys, 2012).

Music and the Internet

The MP3 (MPEG-3) file format has become the
standard for distributing near-CD quality music in
a compact format (Brandenburg, 1999). The use
of the format probably became more widespread
due to the introduction of the free music sharing
software know as Napster which was developed
by Shawn Fanning in 1999 during his freshman
year at the North-eastern University (Fox, 2001).
Napsters software application enables users to
locate and share media files from one convenient,
easy-to-use interface. It also provides media fans
a forum to communicate their interests and tastes
with one another via instant messaging, chat
rooms, and Hot List user bookmarks. Although
Napster provided an ideal way to distribute music,
it caused problems as its users were exploiting
the file-sharing facility to distribute music to
those without licences. Had the system been used
responsibly, it would have allowed holders of a
legal CD to easily obtain an electronic version
from anywhere in the world without having to
take their CD with them.

PCs, Tablets and Other AudioVisual Media Services

The Internet has great potential for providing
more exciting Interactive entertainment services,
especially in relation to music accessed by using
a tablet (Koskela, Julkunen, Keranen, Kostamo,
& Ylianttila, 2009). Existing services such as
Peoplesound.com demonstrate how easy it can be
to find a piece of music from a particular genre to
download. These services are often designed for
access from PCs, which require a lot of experience
to get used to using. Tablet devices, such as the
Apple iPad, offer an ideal means to reduce the
digital-divide, as the hardware is much easier to
use than a personal computer meaning low skilled


Using the Internet to Make Local Music More Available to the South Wales Community

users can participate in what many take for granted

(Lee et al., 2013). The iPhone and iPad provide
even more effective means to access music services, as do other smartphones and tablets, such as
those based around Android or Windows Mobile.
These technologies are often free, providing an
Internet or telephone subscription is purchased.
This is a big difference to the cost of PCs, which
are sold for around 799 (500) making tablet
a more affordable way to access online content.

Innovation in Web and

App Development
Innovation is perhaps an over-used and misunderstood term, meaning different things to different
people. In the graphics design sector, it has come
to mean new designs that inspire people into new
forms of creative thinking. In the computing
sector it generally refers to new applications or
techniques in order to complete a task. In the past,
many people have concentrated on one form of
innovation over the other, believing them to be
mutually exclusive. However, the Web offers a
new opportunity to bring the two together to form
applications that not only feel and look good, but
working in such a way that they are also usable by
their target group. Perhaps this unified approach
to Web design is what will make a Web application innovative.
As everyone knows the Internet is far from a
new concept and with over 25 years of fine-tuning
having taken place the worlds giant network of
networks has now become accepted as a medium
for business delivery, both to consumers and within
supply chains (Fawcett, 2000). Edison said that
genius is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent
perspiration and thus the way to get appropriate
and innovative design ideas (and not just ideas for
cool designs that nobody can use) is to watch users
and see what they like, what they find easy, and
where they stumble (Nielsen, 2000). As a result the

innovation taking place within the Internet arena is

amazing, with leading computer companies rolling
out new products on a daily basis (Fawcett, 2000).
There is plenty of scope for creating innovative
applications for the Internet. However, in order to
develop an innovative application it is important
to look at existing services and how users interact
with them. The way to get good design ideas is quite
often to follow usability engineering methodology and steep yourself in user reactions and data
(Nielsen, 2000). Web developers from a graphic
design background, with limited knowledge of
human-computer-interaction tend to design Web
sites that they would like to use, as illustrated in
the early nineties when the Web was in its infancy.
It could be argued that designs that current Web
users do not find usable is innovative and that
once people adapt they will find this innovative
design acceptable.
Usability counts for a lot in any encounter
with a new product and is what allows people to
explore the product and discover what it has to offer
(Buchanan, 2000). Whether one wants to explore a
product goes beyond the utility of the product and
beyond issues of usability as we all have choices
in the marketplace and have to decide why one
should select one product or another (Buchanan,
2000). Buchanan suggests that if a user wants to
use a site, they may be willing to put up with poor
usability. Perhaps the best way to decide this is to
use existing methods for testing the acceptability
of Web applications.
Figure 1 sets out the requirements of system
acceptability, which include parameters applicable
to Web site design, including key areas such as
usability and utility (that form part of practical
acceptability) and social acceptability (Nielsen,
1993).
Interestingly, Subjectively Pleasing forms
only a small part of the Usability parameter.
When developing a Web site, graphic designers
tend to concentrate on its visual appearance more


Using the Internet to Make Local Music More Available to the South Wales Community

Figure 1. Nielsens (1993) parameters for system acceptability

than how usable it is. Using usability engineering

as a basis, it should be possible to decide whether
a cool design or innovative application is usable.
It is possible for an application to not meet the
System Acceptability criteria in Figure 1 if it
is not socially acceptable, even if it meets all the
requirements to make it practically acceptable.
This is the challenge facing graphic designers
and programmers alike, to develop applications
that its potential users want to use as well as be
able to use.

BACKGROUND
Wales is well known for its music talents, but it is
rare that the best of local talent is played on South
Waless Number One Radio Station whichever
that happens to be these days. Even so, a growing
confidence and interest in the Welsh language and
contemporary Welsh music is only matched by a

corresponding lack of interest in Welsh politics

(Phillips, Lawton, Cairns, & Gardner, 2000).
Indeed, there are sometimes opposing political,
commercial and nationalistic pressures on Welsh
musicians to sustain a living in difficult circumstances (Carr, 2012).
The Internet provides an ideal platform for
making this music more available and accessible to
the South Wales community. Whilst access to the
Internet within Wales has decreased, from 93 per
cent in 2002 to 88 per cent in 2004 (Jones, Packham, Beynon-Davies, & Pickernell, 2011), mobile
broadband is now the fastest growing means of
accessing the Internet in Wales and this trend is
likely to continue (Davies, 2012). The necessity
for a unified industry that facilitates musicians
to exploit their intellectual property rights inside
and outside of Wales is also emphasized as an
important factor regarding the capacity of the
Welsh music industry to propagate employment
for its workforce (Carr, 2012).


Using the Internet to Make Local Music More Available to the South Wales Community

Local colleges in Wales offer starter courses

to introduce people to computers, tablets and the
Internet more generally. For younger people who
are eager to and capable of adapting to what is a
very complicated technology, these courses have
been useful. Even with these centres, the PC could
be considered to be the barrier between unskilled
people and the Internet as personal computers are
difficult to use. Welsh music educators have began
discussions about a national music curriculum;
basic issues such as the value of passive versus
active music making (Rohwer & Rohwer, 2012).
The user has to first get used to using a mouse,
a device that is in no way similar to anything they
have used previously, then they have to get to grips
with the operating system. As an information and
entertainment delivery method, the television has
many key benefits over the personal computer to
the people with low skills in the Objective One
areas in Wales. They are likely to already know
how to use a remote control for their TV and using the Internet could be considered similar to
using Teletext.
Providing people with the skills to access the
Internet alone will not allow people to access these
services. Few people in South Wales have a PC
connected to the Internet, and although schools
and libraries are being connected, the number of
PCs available is still too low to provide access to
everyone who would want to use them. On October 24, 2001 the Welsh Assembly Government
announced an 18.4m investment to speed up the
roll out of high-speed broadband Internet services
throughout schools, libraries and lifelong learning
centres in Wales. It announced the same thing over
10 years later in relation to optic-fibre-based high
speed broadband. This should have increased the
Internet access across Wales, but how will this
affect consumers that want to use the Internet for
entertainment and multimedia services?

AN INVESTIGATION INTO
THE ISSUES AFFECTING THE
PROVISION OF MUSIC SHARING
SERVICES IN WALES AND BEYOND
The purpose of this study was to interview participants in Wales and design a social media platform
for Wales called Welsh Tunes that would
take account of the needs of musicians in Wales.
The study was conducted in a similar style to a
software development plan.

Participants
Nearly twenty-five of the thirty participants
wanted to be able to upload music, even though
only twenty of them produce music. This suggests
that the concept of being able to listen to music
uploaded by others is popular with consumers.
The features that all of those surveyed wanted
were charts, to be able to download music, links
to resources and to listen to music. Forums, chat
and news were the least wanted features, though
opinion polls and reviews were wanted by most.

Methodology
The development of the Welsh Tunes music
service followed the approach in the revised star
lifecycle (Bishop, 2007).points of the star are not
ordered in or connected in a sequence, meaning a
development activity can be started at any stage.
However, the various activities are highly interconnected, through the evaluation process in the
centre. Thus, this lifecycle is evaluation-centred;
results of each activity are evaluated before going on to the next activity (Bishop, 2007; Hix &
Hartson, 1993).


Using the Internet to Make Local Music More Available to the South Wales Community

Figure 2. Bishops (2007) adaptation of the star lifecycle

Results
This study involved looking at existing Web sites
that offered similar features or a similar user base
to the Welsh Tunes music service being developed. The supplement to this report contains all
the sites looked at in this study, but three of the
most influential are described in detail. The aim
is to assess what the potential users of the Welsh
Tunes music service want from an application
of this kind. It identifies the interests they have,
the things they like to do on such a site and the
features that are important to them.

Consulting
The applications will be database-driven, which
influences the way the sites are designed. It is
important to ensure that both the Tablet and Web
versions integrate well with the database. The applications will target different user groups, so it is
important to design the user interfaces differently
to suit the target group.

User Groups
The study identified two main types of user. The
artist is someone who has media to provide. The
consumer is the person that listens to the music,
the person that wants the product. These two
users are almost completely different; they have
different needs and expectations of the Internet.
The research showed that 67% of those that took
part listened to and/or bought music, with 33% of
participants producing their own music.
These two groups can also be sub-divided into
four groups, each with their own specific needs.
The artists are either musicians that are signed
to a record company or seeking a record deal
or performance opportunity. The consumers are
either representatives from the music industry
searching for these musicians or music listeners,
accessing the site for entertainment.
Business Planning
The failure of many innovative Internet ventures
is believed to have been down to a lack of consideration of the business and marketing issues that


Using the Internet to Make Local Music More Available to the South Wales Community

Figure 3. A banner advert to promote the Welsh Tunes music service

are used in the formation of offline enterprises.

It is important to investigate these to ensure the
sustainability of the Web application. Projects
that are not backed by a sponsor, such as a large
media organisation have to consider ways to generate revenue. This can be difficult as there are
limited ways to do this with a brand that is not
well known. Figure 3 presents a banner advert that
uses branding in the form of the Welsh Tunes
logo to ignite interest in the application.
The steepness of revenue growth over time and
the magnitude of revenue generation are likely to
be underestimated using conventional financial
analysis techniques (Hagel & Armstrong, 1997).
Organisers who use those conventional techniques
may end up vastly underestimating the potential of their virtual community investment and
therefore either foregoing investment entirely or
under-investing and thereby increasing the risk
of pre-emption and business failure (Hagel &
Armstrong, 1997). The model proposed by Hagel and Armstrong (1997) in Figure 4 is a useful
model for looking a virtual community from a
commercial point of view. However, the model
is limiting as it suggests that revenue should be
gained through targeted advertising and vendors
who participate in the site.

Content
This research looks at existing music Web sites
from both a design and content angle. It looks
at the style and layout that is currently being
used by music Web sites and the look and feel,
which users accept as well as what services are
currently available. The content is probably the
most important consideration in the users mind.

However, there are issues such as limited screen

space and the need for rich multimedia.
Music Genre
The study also looked at the genre of music that
users listen to and those that they produce. Out of
the thirty users surveyed, the majority listened to
pop, rock, R&B and alternative music. The majority of those that produced music also preferred the
same genre, suggesting that pop, rock and R&B
is the music that should be concentrated on when
choosing content for the site.
The classical and dance genres were the least
popular amongst both those who listened to music
and produced it. Knowing this will be important
when implementing features, as these genres could
be filtered out, so the content that users are most
interested in are focused on.
All of the sites looked at in the study (see
Table 1) have clearly been designed to provide
content to consumers, with little thought to the
music producers requirements. This is possibly
because the sites are trying to target the music
at the consumers, who listen to the music rather
than a site for music artists to upload their music
to. With the exception of eJay.co.uk, the sites
investigated do very little to encourage user interaction. Even though some have a community
area, this is a section of the site as opposed to a
site that has user-generated-content techniques
applied throughout.
The study indicated that users have little
interest in forums and chat rooms, but liked the
idea of opinion polls and reviews. In the design
stage, these are the issues that must be taken into
account, as it is not just the content from music
artists and the media companies that consumers
are interested in, but their opinion as well.
59


Using the Internet to Make Local Music More Available to the South Wales Community

Figure 4. Hagel & Armstrongs (1997) overview of the dynamics of increasing returns

Technology
This stage investigates the available technologies
that can be used to implement the service. Issues
such as the compatibility with the hardware currently being used by consumers and the level of
functionality are looked at. The main issue in

deciding the right technologies to implement

Websites and apps with is whether they will be
compatible with all current Web browsers and
Tablet devices. Table 2 outlines the implementation methods and their main advantages and
disadvantages.

Table 1. Internet-based music services investigated

Website

Description

eJay.com

The eJay Website allows music artists to upload their music for consumers to download and vote on. The
chart position of a particular track an artist has uploaded is affected by a number of factors; the number
of times it is downloaded, how it is rated by the consumer and the number of times it is listened to.
Although this site does not exploit user generated content techniques to their fullest, it provides artists and
consumers with useful information on what is the most popular music.

Peoplesound.com

Peoplesound.com is targeted at consumers more than music artists. When the users visit the site they
are provided with links to different genre, competitions and featured bands. The design of the site is
very clear, making it easy to find the required content. Peoplesound.com provides users with a extensive
selection of charts from the top twenty songs on the site, to the official singles and albums charts.

MTV.com

The first page of the MTV Website is quite complex and does not display at all well on a television.
However, despite the technical problems with the site, it offers a number of useful features and contains
a lot of content. Users are able to listen to music using the MTV Player and view detailed profiles of
artists; read interviews, reviews; and download music.

YouTube

YouTube is a video sharing Website owned by Google, which allows artists to set up Channels to make
their music videos available to the Websites users. Whilst it can help artists create fan-bases, it can also
mean that artists are targeted for abuse by so-called trolls, as happened in the case of Isobel Fay.

MySpace

MySpace is a long-standing social media platform for musicians and their fans. It allows artists to create
customised profiles and share news with their followers.


Using the Internet to Make Local Music More Available to the South Wales Community

Table 2. Types of technology for developing Web-services

Technology

Description

Server-side Scripting

Server-side scripting methods, such as Microsofts ASP.NET and Macromedias ColdFusion allows
Web developers create dynamic Web sites linked to databases. It offers many advantages over traditional
programming techniques as the site can be made to automatically display the most recent data, without the
code being changed. Server-side scripting is only dependent on the platform it is being run on, making it
compatible with any Web Browser or Tablet so long as it outputs the correct version of HTML.

Flash

Adobe Flash is a medium to deliver dynamic content via the Web and smartphones. The slowness and poor
user-interface design of many Flash animations has lead many professional Web developers and casual
surfers to avoid it. The first Web sites were tagged with the name brochureware because of how they were
made to resemble magazines and had no unique design of their own.

Java

Java is a high-level programming language developed my Sun Microsystems. Java is an object-orientated

language similar to C++, but simplified to eliminate language features that cause common programming
errors. Webopedia says that Java is a general-purpose language with a number of features that make the
language suited for use on the World Wide Web. Java has an advantage over programming languages like
Visual Basic because it can be run on nearly all current desktop platforms.

JavaScript

JavaScript is a scripting language developed by Netscape to enable Web authors to design interactive
sites. Although it shares many of the features and structures of the full Java language, it was developed
independently.

Metaphors
Metaphors, such as mediating artefacts have been
used in operating systems and desktop applications
effectively for years, but their use on the World
Wide Web have still not been put to effective use in
the majority of cases (Bishop, 2005). The greatest
weakness of metaphors is that they seem to entice
designers to be overly clever and push the site in
directions that seem fun and appropriate within
the metaphor but leave users real goals behind
(Nielsen, 2000). However, metaphor can provide
unifying framework for the design that will make
it feel more than a collection of individual items.
Second, metaphor can facilitate learning by allowing users to draw upon the knowledge they already
have about the reference system (Nielsen, 2000)
Using metaphors to represent information
would not be appropriate for the Welsh Tunes
media service as the screen size on Tablets is limited and the use of large graphics would limit the
amount of information that could be made available
to consumers. In the Task Analysis, consumers
clearly indicated that accessing content was what
they most wanted. Using text-based buttons seems
more appropriate as a wider range of content can
be made available. However, in some cases, such

as audio player controls, using metaphors such as

the play button symbol would be appropriate to
create simplicity.
Alpha Testing
Alpha testing is usually done by expert users of
the application when it is in an incomplete state.
This allows technical issues with the application
to be identified at an early stage and dealt with
before it is tested with real users. A cost effective
method for conducting this is a usability engineering approached called Heuristic Evaluation
(Nielsen, 1993).

Services
A brand consists of a range of different parameters, which all together create total consumer
perception of the product. The five categories in
Figure 5 indicate the key elements, which create
the basic brand platform or the brand DNA. It
is essential that the questions in each category
have been thought through before the brand
establishes an online presence, as a weak brand
platform will be clearly reflected as a weak Web
site (Lindstrom, 1999).


Using the Internet to Make Local Music More Available to the South Wales Community

Figure 5. The sign-up page for new artists

Lindstroms model provides a basis for identifying the parameters that make up a successful
brand. It demonstrates that building a strong brand
is not just about having an innovative product or
cool logo, but involves a process of maintaining
a relationship with consumers and gaining their
trust. The build a brand, one needs to think about
what one wants customers to see by paying attention to what one is providing that satisfies the
emotional part of their experience in dealing with
your community (Bressler & Grantham, 2000).
Answering these questions requires something
beyond simply going through a set of steps to build
an electronic community, as it entails a rethink
of what one wants ones community to be, and
providing the right support to build and maintain
the application (Bressler & Grantham, 2000). As

Bressler suggests, a brand can only grow if the

application meets the needs of its users. When
developing the brand based on Lindstroms model,
the users have to be considered as each parameter
is developed.

Support
The implementation is possibly the most complex
part of the project. After the application has been
designed and all the innovative ideas generated,
programming them into a usable application is a
difficult task.
Beta Testing
Software companies use beta testing, where a forthcoming product is released to a small number of


Using the Internet to Make Local Music More Available to the South Wales Community

selected individuals for their comments. Beta testing can provide user feedback that arrives in time
to improve the first full release of the product, so it
is highly recommended not just to view beta testing as a debugging method to find programming
errors but also to set up a systematic method for
collecting and analysing user comments regarding
mismatches between the software and their needs
(Nielsen, 1993).The Beta Testing takes the form
of a quantitative questionnaire in which the user
is asked to indicate their experiences in using the
application by selecting the appropriate number
on a semantic differential scale.

LESSONS FOR DESIGNING

ADAPTIVE MULTIMEDIA SYSTEMS
FOR SOCIAL MOBILITY
The main characteristics of multimedia are the
integration of several types of data and highlevel interactivity caused by the relatively high
control the user has over interaction (Van Dijk,
2005). The Welsh Tunes music services design
is based on a four-tier structure. The Tablet user
interface and the Web user interface, both have a
universal branding. These modules present the user
with a usable interface over the lower modules.
User Generated Content is the content that users
produce. The Revenue generation is the model for
gaining income to sustaining the site.

Content Management System

The Welsh Tunes music service is designed to
give artists complete control over the content they
provide for the Tablet version. Artists are able to
add, remove and edit their records and the tracks
associated with them. This means that they will
be able to add the different segments (e.g. record
cover, audio files) of the record at the times they
feel appropriate. In addition, artists are also able
to update the details about themselves (e.g. de-

scription, musical influences), the dates they will

be performing live as well as access the messages
and comments posted to them from consumers.
Web sites that are personalised assist in allowing the consumer to achieve their goals. When a
user informs a Web site what he or she wants,
he or she now has an investment in the service.
If the service a Web site provides the consumer
with value, he or she will use the service more
often and think long and hard before switching
to a competing service (Allen, Yaeckel, & Kania,
1998). Personalisation forms an important part of
the user interface for the Tablet version. Consumers are more likely to want these features than the
artists, whose main goal is to promote themselves
by making their content available.

Adaptive Recommendation Options

The Welsh Tunes music service recommends
particular records to the consumer based on the
genres they access most often on the popularity
of particular records. For example if a consumer
listens to Pop music 50% of the time, then half
their recommendations will be for Pop music.
The popularity of records with other consumers
determines whether they appear in the recommendations.

Integrated Playlist Manager

Consumers have the option to bookmark their
favourite music tracks, reorder them and listen to
them at any time they choose. This feature should
encourage users to use the system more often as
they would use it more like they would a Juke
Box as opposed to a Web site that allows them
to download free music.


Using the Internet to Make Local Music More Available to the South Wales Community

Universal Branding and Marketing

for Multi-Modal Multimedia Systems
In the traditional brand relationship, communication flows between the vendor and the consumer.
Brand-based on-line communities have demonstrated the potential benefits of dialogue flowing
between consumers via two utilities: real-time
chat taking place in chat rooms and asynchronous
discussions. The popularity of interactive communication gives the brand Web site an abundance
of free content from the consumer community
(Brynjolfsson & Urban, 2001). Both the Tablet and
Web versions have a similar look and feel to them
so that the user knows that they are from the same
provider - having a unique logo in a prominent
position is the most obvious way of doing this.
The different user interfaces use the same fonts
and have similar colour schemes.

Tablet User Interface

The main purpose of the tablet version is optimised
for consumers to access the music and information
made available to them by artists who use the Web
version in a more usable format. The user interface
of the tablet version is designed in a completely
different way to the Web version as it is mainly
targeted at consumers who may have limited skills
in using information technology. A number of
important design issues have been looked at to
decide how best to design the interface.
Navigation and Node Layout
Internet sites designed for the Web have historically only allowed their users to display a node
by selecting an item from a list of hyperlinks.
This method often makes it difficult for the lowskilled consumer to make an accurate decision as
to what hyperlink to click on. This problem can
be addressed through graphical representation of
information, by using metaphors or icons.

Graphical Navigation System

Metaphors are not the only way of representing a
hyperlink in graphical form, less obscure methods
can be very effective and helping the consumer in
decision making. A Graphical Navigation System,
based on the images from the covers of the record
allows the consumer to select a record based on
recognition of the graphic as opposed to having to
recall specific details. This form of representing
hyperlinks also makes it easier for Tablet users
to navigate the interface using a remote control,
which can be more difficult than a mouse.

Web User Interface

The target user group for the Web version of the
Welsh Tunes music service are the artists of music
(signed and unsigned artists). Their primary use of
the application is to make samples of their music
and video clips available to the consumers who use
the Tablet version. The Web version also targets
representatives from the music industry who may
be looking to form a relationship with the artists.
Navigation and Node Layout
The interface will follow a similar design style to
a framed interface, but will be based on HTML
tables. This is to make it work on all Web browsers and so that the user can scroll down the page,
without being forced to see the links and advertising. The section navigation is located in the top
frame and the sub-section links are located in the
left frame. This is consistent with most Web sites
and should therefore be a familiar yet distinctive
interface.


Using the Internet to Make Local Music More Available to the South Wales Community

Figure 6. The tablet version of the Welsh Tunes music service

IMPLICATIONS AND FUTURE

RESEARCH DIRECTIONS
This project demonstrates that by basing the design
of a Web application on an Adaptive Multimedia
System, Web sites can meet the needs of diverse
user groups by proving an engaging and personalised user interface. The project identifies that
successful Web applications are not those that
have cool designs, but are those that use innovative methods to create and maintain a brand
that the users of a Web application can associate
themselves with. Multimedia is the links between
several devices in one interactive medium, or links
between several media in one interactive device.
Applications with sound, text, data and images can
be integrated in a combination of several devices
or in a single device.

DISCUSSION
When the Welsh Tunes project first began, the
Websites reviewed within this study were not
aimed towards the actual user or consumer, therefore the language and navigation within them was
too complex. This is even more so the case when
you consider using them on a smaller device such
as a tablet or smartphone. Due to the lack of airplay
for Welsh local talent on regional radio stations,
especially since Red Dragon FM was subsumed
into Capital Radio, the Internet provides the platform needed to allow accessibility for the whole
of the South Wales community. This is where the
implementation of Welsh Tunes began.
Participants helped to identify the features
they wanted from the service and research into
existing Websites that offered similar features was


Using the Internet to Make Local Music More Available to the South Wales Community

Figure 7. The Website version of the Welsh Tunes music service

undertaken, taking both content and design into

consideration. With regards to design, the target
group had to be identified for both the Web and
tablet version. Also the genre of music to be included in the site was identified through the study.
The research on other Websites indicated that
they were designed to provide actual content so
that the user can listen to and download music,
rather than also allowing an artist to upload their
music and allow user interaction.
When implementing the service, hardware
compatibility with current Web browsers, tablet
devices and the level of functionality were investigated. Through alpha testing by the authors and
then beta testing by carefully selected individuals,

valuable feedback with regards to design and usability was gained.

Both the tablet and Web user interfaces have
universal branding. They both have a similar look
and feel and are obliviously from the same provider, due to the prominent Welsh Tunes logo. In
the tablet version, the artist has control of content
and it is fully updateable. This personalisation is
an important part of the user interface.
The service recommends songs based on the
users most popular record choices and their most
accessed genre. The user can also bookmark and
reorder tracks, much like a jukebox. The tablet
version is targeted at people who may have limited IT skills. It does this by using metaphors or


Using the Internet to Make Local Music More Available to the South Wales Community

icons, rather than the usual hyperlinks found on

Internet sites. Using graphics such as album covers, makes it easy for consumers of all levels to
navigate the interface.
The Web version of the music service is targeted
at the actual artists of the music, allowing them
to upload samples of their work and making them
available to the consumers of the tablet version.
It will be in an interface that appears framed, allowing users to scroll down the page, avoiding the
links and advertising. As is the case with many
Websites, the section navigation is at the top and
sub-sections are on the left.
Through extensive research and the differing
test methods conducted through this study, the
implementation of a Website that allows adaptability and a recognisable brand, would indeed
make local music more available to the South
Wales Community.

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KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS

Adaptive Hypermedia: Adaptive hypermedia
refers to those systems that can change, through
personalisation or customisation, to the needs of
the users.
Customisation: Customisation is distinct from
personalisation in that it is controlled by the user
and not the system they are using.
Multi-Modal Multimedia System: A multimodal multimedia system is one that can operate
across platforms such as through a Web Browser,
a tablet and mobile phones.
Personalisation: Personalisation is distinct
from customisation in that it is controlled by the
system and not the user that is operating it.
Tablet: A tablet computer is a portable multimedia system that can be held in ones hands and
is usually operated by touch, such as with ones
fingers or a stylus.
Web Browser: A Web-browser is an application run on a PC or similar device for accessing
Websites on the Internet.