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I know it might be a bit difficult to find musicians who have experience with UX, but I'll give my question a try here.
I am designing an app for musicians and need an opinion on something:
Which way should it point? A (with the nut on top) or B (with the nut on the left). Personally I've seen it both ways, and I asked 2 musicians and one said A and the other B.
Any opinions? The app is in portrait mode as shown there.
I'd take your cues from Tablature.
The strings run horizontally, which is how people hold the guitar anyway, so it makes sense to show the app in that way as well.
That way you're mirroring how people actually look at, and hold a guitar so there's less mental conversion they have to do between app layout and guitar layout.
If displaying a single chord, I'd suggest using version A. Since it just needs to represent the fingering itself. Plus, if the user were to hold the phone with their hand wrapped around it like a guitar neck, their fingers would line up with the display.
If you were to represent a piece of music - a series of notes/fingerings over time - then I might go with B....and enable landscape orientation, and scrolling.
That might be the most I've used the word "fingering". Sorry if it makes anyone uncomfortable.
