Usability of music application interface systems
Authors: Wang Jiacheng , Jia Liangming 
Published: June 2023

The mobile digitalization of music has been a part of people's lives for a few decades. As people enter the stage of transformation from Web 2.0 to 3.0, traditional Internet carriers and other major companies' apps are facing a change. In addition to the quality of the digital products that come with the apps themselves, the visual matching of the user interface, the logic of the operating framework and the adhesion of the user community have all become key factors. Purpose: This study aimed to examine the preferences, behaviors, and ease of use of music apps by students in tertiary institutions, the mainstream group of internet users, in order to provide reference suggestions for the future development of music apps in the Web 3.0 stage.Methods: In this study, the top three apps downloaded (Sample 1 "Spotify"; Sample 2 "QQ music," and Sample 3 "NetEase Cloud Music") were selected from the existing apps in China and Taiwan for the experimental design. The experiment consisted of five task steps: (A) bookmarking songs; (B) sharing songs with friends; (C) creating a new song list with a specific name; (D) searching for a specific song; and (E) changing personal information. Thirty subjects were recruited (purposive sampling), with 10 participants operating each app. Data were collected on task performance time and from the System Usability Scale (SUS), Post-Study System Usability Questionnaire (PSSUQ) and semi-structured interview results. The collected data were tested by one-way ANOVA and LSD post-hoc tests to confirm the significance between variables and specific analyses.Results: The results showed that (1) among the five operational tasks, Task A (p = 0.01 < 0.05) showed a significant difference in operational performance; then, according to the LSD post-hoc test results, the operational time of Sample 1 (M = 15.30, SD = 8.98) was significantly lower than that of Sample 3 (M = 33.67, SD = 16.77), which was not significantly different from that of Sample 2 (M = 23.11, SD = 9.89). There was no significant difference with Sample 2 (M = 23.11, SD = 9.89). (2) According to the SUS scale results, there was a significant difference in the participants' evaluation of the ease of use of the three apps (p = 0.01 < 0.05). According to the LSD post-hoc test results, Sample 1 (M = 85, SD = 8.82) was significantly higher than Sample 2 (M = 66.25, SD = 17.05) and Sample 3 (M = 69.75, SD = 13.15), with no significant difference between Samples 2 and 3. (3) According to the PSSUQ results, there was a significant difference in the interface quality profile, as seen in the LSD post-hoc test results, where Sample 2 (M = 2.93, SD = 0.72) scored significantly lower than Sample 1 (M = 3.9, SD = 0.85) and Sample 3 (M = 3.9, SD = 0.61).Discussions: The three apps are all music players, and the underlying logic of operation is the same, so there is little noticeable performance difference. Sample 1 is the only one of the three apps that has black as the primary visual color of the interface, with green accents. The darker color enhances the user's time to complete tasks and provides a better user experience. When performing tasks, the subjects would invariably look for the icon representing their data in the bottom right corner.