{"id":115821,"date":"2020-07-24T13:00:33","date_gmt":"2020-07-24T13:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer.apple.com\/news\/?id=5z97xxqw"},"modified":"2020-07-24T13:00:33","modified_gmt":"2020-07-24T13:00:33","slug":"behind-the-design-staffpad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2020\/07\/24\/behind-the-design-staffpad\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind the Design: StaffPad"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Great composers bring forth melody from the silence of their imaginations. Long before the orchestra strikes its first chord, an intermixed whisper of invisible strings, brass and percussion lives within a composer\u2019s mind. Transforming those melodic machinations into sheet music, however, is its own special challenge.<\/p>\n

The classical greats relied on the tried-and-true method of writing on sheet paper, letting their creativity flow unabashed onto the page. Once written, however, each part had to be painstakingly copied and reproduced for each musician \u2014 and revisions were far from easy.<\/p>\n

In contrast, modern digital composition software provides an incredible array of tools for composers and musicians. Despite the many benefits of these apps, however, they can come across as cold and complicated, creating unnecessary barriers between the music in someone\u2019s mind and the notes that end up on a music stand.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was spending more time learning these notation programs… than I was actually writing the music,\u201d composer and designer David William Hearn tells us. This dissonance provided him with the beginnings of a different sort of musical idea: an app that provided the inspirational and inviting structure of pen and paper with the powerful features of a digital notation app.<\/p>\n

\u201c[It] started out as quite a selfish endeavor,\u201d Hearn shares with a smile. \u201cThe dream app that I always wanted.\u201d He envisioned something that would not only allow him to write music quickly and with ease, interfacing and interacting with other musicians, but also presented the opportunity to record and playback.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

With the help of cofounder and collaborator Dr. Matthew Tesch, Hearn\u2019s dream app became StaffPad<\/em>, an innovative approach to musical notation. Since its 2015 launch, StaffPad has continually evolved to take advantage of the latest technology, including a full rebuild and relaunch for iPad and Apple Pencil in early 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cMusicians and composers generally appreciate power through simplicity,\u201d says Hearn. \u201cThey want to focus on one thing only \u2014 the music. Every aspect of StaffPad\u2019s design, both invisible and visible, was built with a no-compromise approach to enable that focus.\u201d Subtle design choices create a feeling of unity between the composer\u2019s environment and the interface as they transition into the app. The main screen\u2019s background even changes color based on the weather and time of day to provide a welcoming atmosphere for creativity.<\/p>\n

\n

The paradox of choice is fascinating, but personally I feel being offered a couple of great choices beats having loads of potentially poor ones. You do need bravery in the design to believe the few choices you offer are the right ones.<\/p>\n

David William Hearn, cofounder of StaffPad<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The composition interface is free-form and inviting. The team specifically decided against the idea of a fixed page layout, knowing that people could use StaffPad on a device in any orientation or zoomed at any size. Instead, the app presents composers with an infinitely scrolling digital canvas of sheet music. Rather than ask the creator to pick specific styles or sizes before writing a new composition, they can just start notating, then share the correct size on export.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s certainly a place for having perfect pixel, perfect layout control over every layer,\u201d Hearn says. \u201cBut whilst you’re in a creative flow, you really don’t want to be thinking about page breaks or line breaks.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

While StaffPad is quite powerful in the options it provides composers, the app intentionally uses adaptive toolsets to help declutter its interface and guide composers to the right tool at the right moment. \u201cWe designed the most common things you do to be the most natural,\u201d Hearn says. If a composer is writing for piano, for example, the app won\u2019t display tools designed for percussion instruments.<\/p>\n

That includes notational writing itself. StaffPad requires Apple Pencil \u2014 its precision is instrumental to interacting within the app. While the team considered alternative tools, they ultimately went with the methods that mapped accurately to how someone might write on paper. Pencil gives the composer differentiation, whereas touch is a complement to the overall process. \u201cTouch to move. Pencil to draw. We make it very nuanced, but the dual concept is the key,\u201d Hearn says.<\/p>\n

That exploration also helped identify one of StaffPad\u2019s defining features: toggling the erase tool through drawing pressure. They knew it would break the creative flow to add an extra button to toggle the erase tool. Instead, they relied upon an otherwise unused feature in the app \u2014 Apple Pencil\u2019s pressure sensitivity, which isn\u2019t needed for writing notation \u2014 and designed an erase toggle when pushing firmly on the Pencil. \u201cI knew it had to be light enough that it didn\u2019t feel dangerous, but also strong enough that it didn\u2019t trigger accidentally while writing,\u201d Hearn says. \u201cWe kept trying until it felt right.”<\/p>\n

Another key feature of the app is its text recognition, which translates handwritten strokes or shapes into digital notes, rests, accidentals, articulations, and dynamics. “It’s actually consulting its own sort of music-theory brain,\u201d Hearn says. Even with a scattering of scrawled notes, StaffPad is able to draw upon Core ML frameworks and models to decipher and craft digital orchestrations.<\/p>\n

Despite the app\u2019s \u2018selfish\u2019 origins, StaffPad has found support from people across the musical world. \u201cOne of my favorite things about the app is that it’s fostered this sense of kind of community ownership,\u201d Hearn says. \u201cPeople are really quite emotionally attached to it in a lot of ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hearn and team receive regular suggestions, feedback, and stories from their community. His favorite emails are those from teachers and students: \u201cThat raw inspiration that comes from the education sector is really amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

StaffPad continues to explore new ways to support its audience, including its companion app, StaffPad Reader. The app allows musicians to digitally view and play scores from StaffPad, and even automatically turns pages in unison as they rehearse or perform. If the composer edits or transposes a score on StaffPad, the app also receives changes over the air, reformatting the parts in realtime.<\/p>\n

Hearn and Tesch have even begun the process of introducing another natural input interface into the app: voice. \u201cI believe voice will become a primary input method for most apps in the near future,\u201d says Hearn. \u201cVoice provides a vector into a nearly unlimited command set \u2014 and one that we already know how to use.\u201d<\/p>\n

Winning an Apple Design Award is just one note on the team\u2019s musical journey. \u201cThere\u2019s always more to do,\u201d Hearn says. But over the last few years, he\u2019s found joy in helping craft both the app and working with the team behind it. \u201cA composer is a solitary animal,\u201d he notes. An app-building team, less so. \u201c[My] main learning has been how best to work to create a cohesive design and then explain that to a team of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Learn more about StaffPad<\/a><\/p>\n

Learn more about StaffPad on the App Store<\/a><\/p>\n

Download StaffPad on the App Store<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Great composers bring forth melody from the silence of their imaginations. Long before the orchestra strikes its first chord, an intermixed whisper of invisible strings, brass and percussion lives within a composer\u2019s mind. Transforming those melodic machinations into sheet music, however, is its own special challenge. The classical greats relied on the tried-and-true method of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-apple-developer-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}