Sonification Products

If you find yourself

designing sonifications for small, mobile, info-tech consumer products

for example

• e1: sound schemes for menu browsing in a mobile phone [Marila 2002] http://www.icad.org/websiteV2.0/Conferences/ICAD2002/proceedings/39_JuhaMarila.pdf
• e2: sound design for a digital camera [Maeda et al. 2002] http://www.icad.org/websiteV2.0/Conferences/ICAD2002/proceedings/35_KoozooMaeda.pdf
• e3: sound design for electric home appliances [Tsuchida 2002]http://www.icad.org/websiteV2.0/Conferences/ICAD2002/proceedings/78_tsuchida.pdf

with the problem that

the sounds in most products are either alarms or embellishments, and most people are not familiar with sonifications that convey other types of information

entailing forces

• f1: people are used to alarms and decorative sounds
• f2: but are not familiar with the use of sounds to provide information for other kinds of tasks

THEN

Design a sonification that provides information that makes the product more useful, usable and enjoyable

Apply

The Bauhaus aesthetic that "form should follow function" along with the design and evaluation criteria from papers at ICAD 2002 listed here:

• Amusing, Interesting
• Annoyance, Nuisance, Stress, Unnecessary
• Brand, Logo, Look and feel, Image, Style, Theme
• Comfort, Ergonomics, Pleasantness
• Culture, Culture-neutral
• Effectiveness, Efficiency, Effort, Performance
• Emotional quality
• Environmental context, Intentional context
• Hearable, Perceivable
• Expressiveness, Information level, Urgency
• Learning curve, Instant Usability, Long-term Usability
• Understandable, Accuracy, Errors, Identifiable
• Usefulness, Functionality, Importance, Relevance

to construct

a sonification that sets the product apart by making it more useful, usable, easy to learn and understand, and pleasurable to use.

leading to

wider use of sonifications in new products

and

application of sonification from laboratory research projects to real world applications

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References

Maeda K. Matsuo K. Matsumoto S. and Saito Y. (2002) "Example Design Process for Audio Signals in a Digital Camera", in Proceedings of the International Conference on Auditory Display ICAD 2002, Kyoto, July 2-5, 2002.

Marila J. (2002) "Experimental Comparison of Complex and Simple Sounds in Menu Hierarchy Sonification", in Proceedings of the International Conference on Auditory Display ICAD 2002, Kyoto, July 2-5, 2002.

Tsuchida Y. (2002) "Review of Aspects of Auditory Signal Studies in Japan", in Proceedings of the International Conference on Auditory Display ICAD 2002, Kyoto, July 2-5, 2002.