Krotos make audio design tools for the movie, TV, and games industries. These tools typically focus on very specific outcomes (Ignitier is designed for making vehicle engine sounds), or novel, new solutions (Reformer provides a method of playing sample banks via an input such as the user’s voice).

As a user experience consultant I worked with the studio on a number of projects, including Reformer, Igniter, Weaponiser, and Concept.

All of these tools are incredibly powerful, with myriad features and hundreds of fine-grained controls. This depth is deeply valued by users, however it also risks workflows becoming convoluted and inefficient as they are smothered underneath innumerable options.

Working together, Krotos and I established a number of principles to guide the design work:

• Optimise for workflows. Make it clear what the user has to do to construct a sound. At all points the user should be able to see a line from where they are to how that changes the final sound.

• All the options, but only when you need them. Users can access fine grained controls in a conscious manner, in a way that doesn’t clutter the main flows. The software has an opinion about what is important!

• Challenge historical paradigms. For instance, patterns used in more established pieces of software, or analogies from traditional, physical audio tools and instruments.

Central to the software is the idea of “Modulators”, a bank of changing values that can be applied to almost any parameter within the app.

Showing how Modulators affect the sound, and how different elements of the app interact with one another was Concept’s main design challenge. 

Concept uses colour coding and animation to illustrate how these modulators can be applied to and affect other parts of the synth. Also, all options are always visible, so there are no parameters hidden from the user. If something is affecting the final sound you are not only able to immediately see it, but also quickly trace that chain of parameters through the app.