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Music Software & Bad Interface Design: Avid’s Sibelius

Tantacrul · commentary · Watch on YouTube

UX & UI designMusic theory, synthesis & production

What it is

Tantacrul dissects the UX and UI of Avid's Sibelius music notation software, going through a long list of bad design choices. The review is both a comic rant and a practical lesson in interface design.

Why Hacker News recommends it

Recommended as the most entertaining serious critique of a software interface, and a crash course in UX mistakes.

  • 8 people recommended it
  • 8 different months
  • 4 strong recommendations
  • first 2019, last 2026

What HN commenters said

  1. “might be the most entertaining serious critique of a software user interface ever posted to YouTube.”

    Entertaining serious UI critique of Sibelius

    sjwright, 2020-06 · Strong recommendation · in “MuseScore 4: Moving from notation software to composition software”

  2. “is ridiculously funny, but also on point.”

    Funny and on-point Sibelius UI critique

    wexq, 2021-05 · Strong recommendation · in “Audacity Aquired by Muse Group”

  3. “this and his Dorico video are must-watch crash-courses for any developer touching UX design, even outside of music!”

    Crash course in UX design via Sibelius

    btown, 2021-10 · Strong recommendation · in “‘Jean Sibelius’ Review: An Early Finale”

  4. “remains one of my favourite vids on yt”

    Favourite YouTube video on Sibelius UX

    l__l, 2023-07 · Strong recommendation · in “MuseScore 4.1 is now available”

  5. “This entertaining diatribe about Sibelius' difficult to use design mentions poor use of a Ribbon.”

    Entertaining critique of Sibelius design

    rgoulter, 2019-02 · Recommendation · in “Whitespace killed an enterprise app”

  6. “goes over the UI of two competing music scoring software and why one is bad and the other good.”

    Compares good and bad scoring software UI

    xmprt, 2019-09 · Recommendation · in “The Distribution of Users’ Computer Skills: Worse Than You Think (2016)”

  7. “Tantacrul's videos[0] on the subject of UI are very good at showing what the state of the art is.”

    Shows state of the art in notation software

    TremendousJudge, 2022-05 · Recommendation · in “Clairnote: An alternative music notation system”

  8. “Same author also has a funny video on the UI of another music notation program, Sibelius”

    Funny UI review of Sibelius

    radicality, 2022-12 · Recommendation · in “MuseScore 4”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: ux design, sibelius, music notation, interface design, tantacrul

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