Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!think.com!paperboy!yee From: yee@osf.org (Michael K. Yee) Newsgroups: comp.human-factors Subject: Re: Audio feedback from GUI's Message-ID: Date: 13 Jun 91 15:04:31 GMT References: <1991Jun12.171211.2716@cs.umn.edu> <31228@hydra.gatech.EDU> <1991Jun12.202741.16629@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <1991Jun12.215523.7379@cs.umn.edu> Sender: news@OSF.ORG Organization: Open Software Foundation Lines: 38 In-reply-to: brsmith@cs.umn.edu's message of 12 Jun 91 21:55:23 GMT In article <1991Jun12.215523.7379@cs.umn.edu> brsmith@cs.umn.edu (Brian R. Smith) writes: > The hardest part here is figuring out WHERE to use WHAT sounds > unintrusively. > Agreed. This is why a sound feedback MUST be configurable. > The best one I've thought of so far is the variable pitch "click" on > scrolling. It gives you a lot of information - whether you're going > up or down (from hearing two consecutive clicks and hearing the pitch > difference), how fast (useful for rate-scrolled windows), and how > close you are to each end (high or low pitch). Maybe even a quick > "thud" noise whe you reach the end. > NO, This is one of the first things I turned off when I used SoundMaster on the Mac. The scrollbar sound was cute, but slowed down the scrolling and was annoying (i.e. it was too long in duration). NOTE: This is an good example of why audio feedback must be configurable by the user. The most useful audio feedback I've found when using SoundMaster is a audio indication of when I enter and leave a legal drop site (e.g. dragging a file over the trashcan). The audio feedback augmented the visual feedback so well, that I could almost hit the target (e.g. the trashcan) without looking. > It has the potential to make the interface feel more real. > -- > Brian Agreed. =Mike -- == Michael K. Yee -+- OSF/Motif Team == Open Software Foundation - 11 Cambridge Center - Cambridge, MA 02142 == "Live simply, so that others may simply live."