audio for ux

Audio

Friday, August 2, 13

Recognition

env 1 env 2 env 3 env 4 env 5


Recognition

• We don’t hear sound, in the sense of recognizing them, until shortly after we have perceived them.


Recognition

office env 2 env 3 env 4 env 5


Recognition

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stationenv 3 env 4 env 5


Recognition

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stationtaxi env 4 env 5


Recognition

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boxingarena

env 5


Recognition

officetrain

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bts


Anatomy of Sound

• Wave

• Human hearing range 20Hz - 20kHz


Anatomy of Sound


Characteristic of Sound

• Pitch

• Quality / Timbre

• Loudness (Sound Pressure Level)


Pitch


Quality / Timbre


Sound Pressure Level


Sound Envelope


Audio and User Experience

• Sound is an essential part of everyday living

• Sound can deliver entertainment: music

• Vital Information: traffic and news report


Audio and User Experience

• Audio signals help us interact with our environment

• Some of these signals are designed:

• Alarm Clock Buzz

• Phone Ring

• Some are not

• Air Conditioner Hum

• Car Engine Sound

We notice it immediately when something doesn’t sound right


Sound Like Success

“You can tell that someone start up a PC or Mac withoutlooking just by the distinctive sounds of their OS jingles”


Audio’s Limited Role in UX

• Unwanted sound can be intrusive and annoying

• Invasive background music

• Click and beeps giving user feedback for no good reasons

• Zooming & swooshing sound accompanying animations

“Rather than enhancing a user experience, audiocan be a distraction and reduce our effectiveness”


Audio Usage in UX

• Ambient Background Sound

• Task-and Event-Based Signals

• Warning and Notifications


Ambient Background Sound

“Our day-to-day lives are filled with background soundsome of which we enjoy-say, ocean waves at the beach

and other sounds that we strongly dislike-likeconstruction noise”

“Will people need the equivalent of a white-noisegenerator in their computers to raise the backgroundsound level high enough to drown out distractions?”


Task-and Event-Based Signals

“We often take for granted the offline audio cues that assistinput to digital devices. The click of the mouse and tap-tap of

the keyboard reinforce the fact that we’ve completed aparticular action”


Warnings and Notifications

“Voice could be used to direct the user’s attention to importantevents or elements on the screen in a richer way than the

obnoxious beep that currently constitute mostcomputers’ audio vocabulary”

“Because audio is intrusive, it’s best to ask for a user’s permissionbefore using audio notifications and always provide a clear way

of disabling the audio”


Principles of Sound Design

• Synchresis

• Acousmatic

• Extension (of sound space)

• Empathetice

• Anempathetic sound


Synchresis

• This comes from the two tords “synchronism” and “synthesis”

• Mental fusion between a sound and a visual when these occur at exactly the same time


Acousmatic

• The sound one hears without seeing their originating cause

• Invisible sound source


Extension (of sound space)

• Build the image an environment

• Beyond the borders of visual field

• Or withing the visual field filed around the characters


Empathetic

• Music or sound effects whose mood matches the mood of the action

• the ability to feel the feeling of others

• Like sadness, happiness and movement


Anempathetic

• Usually diegetic music that seems to exhibit conspicuous indifference to what is going on in the film’s plot

• Creating a strong sense of tragic


audio for ux

Documents

swooshing sound

sound envelopefriday

user experience sound

recognitionoffice env

ux unwanted sound

everyday living sound

doesnt sound rightfriday

audio usage