Goldberg: Future Work

What kinds of flexibility could we support, and for what benefits?

• Multiple interaction modes. Providing rating, choosing, and ranking modes of interaction would allow different kinds of interaction with Goldberg. These modes are similar enough that more than one could probably be provided without being overly confusing.
• Multiple interface metaphors. Goldberg could use both the Music Processor metaphor and the intelligent assistant metaphor as different sections of an integrated application, presumably appealing to an even larger audience. However, this would require substantially more work and carries the danger of the application becoming too complicated and confusing.
• Control over information displayed.
  • Providing alternative ways of visualizing variations (such as music notation and piano rolls) would allow Goldberg to be used by people at different levels of musical knowledge and skill. A few such options would not be difficult to implement.
  • Control over whether names are provided might support more exploratory, random kinds of interactions. This would not be difficult to provide, though our user tests also suggest that it's not necessarily of great importance either.
• Control over operations performed. The set of operations that Goldberg can perform to generate variations could be user-extendable. A user willing to do some simple programming could extend Goldberg's power. Also, during use, the composer could control the set of currently available operations. Although this seems like an important feature, it would be a large task to implement.