System testing
Once a working prototype and nearly complete system was built, I decided to hold a user-testing group. The main objective of this testing was to gain the users opinions about the audio and the overall experience of the system.

I described the context of the project first to the users, to give them an insight into when you would use the system and what the surrounding environment would be. Describing that the system would be found within an airport, away from the hustle and bustle of the main busy area. Connect in Transit is a relaxing space, where people can appreciate their surrounding, and not feel anxious.

Feedback
John you can notice that the more people that are moving within the space, more audio comes on. If the chairs were more spaced out, it may be better.

Euan it might be interesting to have the seating in the corner for the space for the degree show, so that it makes it more apparent to the users that the audio is being triggered by the movement, rather that sitting on the chairs. It might be good if each loop last between a 30 seconds and a minute and a half.

It would be good if there were more sounds, to give it more scope. It would be good t categorise the audio - ie base tracks, drums, piano etc - so that there are different noises to be heard. At the moment you only have four audio tracks, it would be good to have different categories and within each of these categories have 3 or 4 different tracks stored, and whenever this category is triggered it picks one of the tracks at random.

John it would be nice if some of the audio is really short, so it just flutters in now and again. He likes the sounds, thinks they would be nice in an airport, its relaxing.

Ian agrees, that the biggest thing about an airport, you need to be relaxed. Its so easy to get agitated because there are so many people.

Euan thinks its nice, but there is defiantly a lot to be gain by increasing the music bank, making it more dynamic. It would be really nice if you were to have this in an airport, that it was in an area where there are no tannoy announcements, so it does not interrupt the chilled out atmosphere of the space, having screens displaying the announcements.

Ian its almost like you want to create an are that is not in an airport

Reflection on the feedback
The testing group was crucial to improving the project and gaining user feedback. The opinions within the group were very similar, showing me clearly what I need to work on.

Without the user group, I would not have though about having a function within the system that triggers a random audio loop that is stored within itself, I had only though about the size of the space and how many audio loops could be triggered at once.

From here I can expand on my system by looking into how I can use a random picker to select a track, and how I can store various tracks within this.
Before this session I had only though about increasing the amount of audio loops that could be played at once.

The feedback about the audio was very positive, showing that ambient and calming music would work well within the context of an airport. From this point I can continue creating similar styled audio loops, expanding my music library ffo my system.

By the end of the project I will have a fully working system with the ability to randomly access tracks, making the audio more diverse enriching the experience of the system.