User evaluation of a new interactive playlist generation concept

Abstract

Selecting the 'right' songs and putting them in the 'right' order are key to a great music listening or dance experience. 'SatisFly' is an interactive playlist generation system in which the user can tell what kind of songs should be contained in what order in the playlist, while she navigates through the music collection. The system uses constraint satisfaction to generate a playlist that meets all user wishes. In a user evaluation, it was found that users created high-quality playlists in a swift way and with little effort using the system, while still having complete control on their music choices. The novel interactive way of creating a playlist, while browsing through the music collection, was highly appreciated. Ease of navigation through a music collection is still an issue that needs further attention. © 2005 Queen Mary, University of London.