Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!twg.com!david From: david@twg.com (David S. Herron) Newsgroups: comp.human-factors Subject: Re: Audio feedback from GUI's Message-ID: <9090@gollum.twg.com> Date: 15 Jun 91 15:39:47 GMT References: <1991Jun12.202741.16629@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <1991Jun12.215523.7379@cs.umn.edu> Sender: david@twg.com Organization: The Wollongong Group, Palo Alto, CA Lines: 61 In article haltraet@gondle.idt.unit.no (Hallvard Traetteberg) writes: > 1.Sound is useful for attracting attention. > 2.Sound (as opposed to speach) is *not* useful for communicating > information. er.. no. You go on to give a bunch of cases were sound *does* communicate information .. >I don't need to hear a "zap" when deleting a file since I get enough visual >feedback already. Yes.. This would be a silly use of sound. >When working at the machine my attention is already there to >catch changes in the display (and thus the working environment). When waiting >for something to happen I would like to look at my desk instead. With my >attention some other place a sound that tells me the sorting is done is >appropriate. Or when that window is iconized... This is something which lots of people want. It's also pretty easy to type `echo ^G^G^G' into that window before iconizing it.. > Likewise, when the humming from a large NFS transfer vanishes I >know I can go back to work on the machine. Isn't this communication? > A friend of mine has a PC >with a heat regulated fan, which makes a different sound when the machine >accesses the network. He likes it because it tells him why the PC slows down.) Isn't this communication? >Remember also that several people often share an office and that alerting >sounds are heard by all of them. A faint humming mix in with other white noise >and is less disturbing. Yes. Anecdote: one old office mate of mine was so sensitive about extraneous noise that a keyboard which provides audible click feedback was too much for him. Even when the volume was turned all the way down. This is regardless of the fact that I found the click all too useful. Sound doesn't have to be used for a one-shot notification of event (eg alert). I read once of a virtual reality application for molecule construction. You'd put on your gloves and waldos & be able to move around molecules and try to fit them together. The feedback for how well they fit together was communicated via the "resistance" experienced in the gloves. Sound could be used in a similar way. For instance two sounds when close together will "beat" (because of peculiarities in frequency cancellation). Musicians have used this technique for centuries for tuning instruments. (Except that not all people are able to hear the "beating"..) David