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# System prepended metadata

title: Description Portfolio

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# Description Portfolio

## Technical Description

### Summary

In this technical description, I will be going through the basics of harmonic reduction in music. Harmony is basically the auditory perception of how different pitches sound together at the same time, and reduction is abstracting something into a more high-level structure, which makes such structure more suitable for further analysis.

Harmonic reduction is widely used in Western common practice music theory since a good share of Western music is of homophonic texture: one part as melody and one or multiple parts hinting the underlying harmony. Before we jump in to the actual reduction steps, let's see what a reduction actually contains.

### Key Concepts

#### Roman Numerals

Roman numerals will be a staple in most music theory and musicianship classes that follow Western common practice. Those numbers has much to do with tonality, which in a less theory-heavy setting is what we usually call the "key" of a piece of music. Therefore, Roman numerals basically tell the readers what a chord's function is relative to the key of the piece. For example, a C major chord in a C major piece would have the same function of a D major chord in a D major piece; their corresponding Roman numeral are both "I."

#### Intervals & Spelling

Intervals decide the "vertical" distance between notes; that is, how far apart are two pitches away from each other. Deciding the "level" of an interval between two notes is actually not hard at all; just look at this example:

![](https://i.imgur.com/ggK0FME.png)
Figure 1. The interval between the first note and every note.

Two notes occupying the same vertical space is a "first" (or more commonly a "unison") away from each other, and the number increments when the notes move further away on a staff. Note that it's only the space or line the note it's on that matters, so you can just ignore all the sharps (♯) and flats (♭) when you're doing the counting. Therefore, notes that sound the same but are written differently (D♯ and E♭, for example) will be treated differently during reduction.

#### Inversions

Even though chords in the wild can come in so many different shapes and forms, for the sake of simplicity and practical convenience, chords in harmonic reduction always has a third up and (most of the time) a fifth up from some "root note." That is what makes identifying chords sometimes not so easy; you have to find different combinations to finally get a root note that has its thirds, fifths, and sometimes even sevenths! Even though often times the root note is the very bottom note (the "bass note"), when they are not the same, an inversion happens. The same chords with different inversions share similar traits but have subtle nuances between them.

### Steps

#### Identify chords & write out their Roman numerals

Identifying chords can be very easy at times - just find all the notes vertically, apply the corresponding Roman numerals, and then we can call it a day! However, chords can often be missing notes, have extra non-chord notes, or sometimes even both! Reconstructing those chords is the most low level reduction process going on, and after that the proper Roman numerals are given based on the tonality of the piece (or section of a piece because a piece can change keys in the middle). This part is rather mechanical.

#### Identify intermediate harmonic structures

Now that you have all the chords down, it is now time to figure out some higher level structure. For example, some chords are just a brief interim between more important chords (passing chords); some chords are holding a note that will later move down to relief the tensioned sound (sustained chords); some chords form a pattern that makes transition more interesting (chord sequences). Even though from this part on, there often isn't one definitive answer, there are still ways to help you determine what chords are to be reduced, such as the duration of the chords and whether they start on the strong beat.

#### Identify phrases

Unlike the previously mentioned intermediate structures, phrases are slightly more well-defined. Phrases they are constituted of some of the three types of chords: tonic, predominant, and dominant. The right combination of these chords form cadences, which is the part of a phrase that signifies a strong ending; this is how most phrases are being identified. After identifying the phrases, the harmonic reduction process is done! There are still even higher-level analysis on music, but that is another topic for another day.

## Client Needs Report

### Summary

In this client report, I will be focusing on food trucks on the Urbana-Champaign campus. Since those food trucks have people affiliated with the University as their target audience, the problems they face also stems from a less constant customer flow. The absence of a suitable technology also contributes to the problem.

### Inspiration

It was a hot summer day when I was going about my usual tasks as an intern at the Research Park; things were going all fine and well until I realized that I forgot to bring lunch! While the food trucks - the only food source within walking distance - came to my rescue, the time I spent waiting in line took half of my lunch break. I then paid closer attention to the location, customer flow, etc. of food trucks, not only trying to think of ways to improve my own experience as a consumer, but in return benefit the suppliers as well.

### Client overview

My client will be food trucks; for easier observation, food trucks on campus in Urbana-Champaign area. While the types of food they offer can vary drastically, here listed are traits they share.

 - Operate during weekdays from early noon to early evening.
 - Located close to school buildings.
 - Stay at the same spots for several hours, if not for an entire day.
 - Sometimes change spots from one day to another.
 - Takes the majority of the order from walk-in customers.

These traits hint that the target audience of the food trucks are students or school employees who do not have enough time during the day to either go back to their residence for lunch or dine in. Weekdays and instructional buildings are when and where students have classes, and how food trucks move their spots ensure stability while adding a bit of variability. However, out of all the traits there is an odd one out: taking most of the orders from walk-in customers does not provide any advantage for a college-centered customer base.

### Problems & why some fixes do not work

The main target audience of food trucks are affiliated with the University, and this means that the customers' breaks are mostly on the hour. This uneven distribution of lunch-purchasing time results in a substantial difference in order density between peak and non-peak periods. This not only result in longer wait time for customers, but also makes productivity of non-peak periods underutilized.

Now that the problem is identified, I want to show why two of the potential solutions are not solving the problem. One of the solutions is to have the food pre-made. While this is already the case for certain types of foods, it is hard for trucks that offer hot food with a more variable menu to do the same. Even for the trucks with pre-made food, steps such as ordering, paying, and packaging can all take up a good amount of time.

Another is to have more ordering methods through phone calls or apps. For food trucks, however, managing truck locations online can be tricky [1], not to mention giving information on those locations by phone order if the customers do not already know all possible spots. In fact, on signup page for merchants on food delivery/ordering platforms such as Uber Eats or DoorDash, all of the business types are static in location [2][3].

### Conclusion

The food trucks on campus have clear busy hours, and this limits customer experience during busy hours and efficiency of food truck usage for other times of the day. This problem is also partly because of lack of technology solutions that fit the nature of food trucks, which is partly static and partly mobile.

### References
1. https://www.reddit.com/r/foodtrucks/comments/8qdznq/anyone_have_any_experience_adding_a_delivery/, best comment by u/AlchemyAlice
2. https://merchants.ubereats.com/
3. https://get.doordash.com/en-us

## Usability Report

### User Test

The user test is inspired by the two main methods introduced in class: paraphrase testing and plus/minus testing. After applying those two tests in order, I ask follow-up questions if time allows me to.

### Results

The paraphrase phase went through smoothly for both users. For plus/minus testing, Luke felt the document is overall easy to understand, so I then asked him if anything feels missing. He then suggested that there can be more concrete descriptions for the shortcomings of apps like Uber Eats and DoorDash. On Ella's side, we got into more detail about the actual content than the writing aspect (which also happened during my user testing for her document as well).

### Planned revisions

While Luke suggested more details on Uber Eats's and DoorDash's shortcomings can be integrated, I chose not to implement it for the fear of losing the original meaning of my reference (Reddit comment) by doing a round of paraphrasing. However, asking the follow-up question sparked a new user testing idea.

In NBA officiating reports of close playoff games, all potential calls (violations or fouls) can be separated into four categories: correct calls, correct non-calls, incorrect calls, and incorrect non-calls. I figure the same can be done for documents as well; therefore, during this "four-category testing," the user will be prompted to answer these four questions.

1. Is something in the document you feel is essential?
2. Is something important in the document that goes missing?
3. Is something in the document redundant?
4. Is something left out in the document on purpose and works well to make the document concise?

Maybe the method was already proposed by someone else before, but it is an interesting way to perform user test nontheless.
