‘Observing’ the Workplace Soundscape: Ethnography and Auditory Interface Design

Abstract

This paper identifies a gap in the research agenda of the auditory display community-the study of work practice and the uses (current and potential) of the workplace 'soundscape'. The paper presents a case study derived from a one year activity theory-oriented ethnographic study of information gathering work at a UK daily newspaper. We consider the soundscape aspects of mediating collaborative activity in the newsroom, and conclude with a discussion of the issues arising from this attempt to utilise ethnographic techniques within the auditory display design domain.

The Impact of Health-Related User Interface Sounds on Player Experience

“…As discussed in the previous study, there were some differing player preferences when it comes to the types of auditory warnings that they are provided within games. The two most common types could be divided into ’abstract’ and ’realistic’ sounds, approximating the notion of earcons and auditory icons found in existing auditory interface work, where realistic sounds have a basis in real-world, bioacoustic environments (e.g., breathing, heartbeats, corollaries to auditory icons discussed in the introduction), and abstract sounds are created artificially through electronic or other synthesis methods (corollaries to earcons) (alternate naming conventions might be “abstract” and “everyday” sounds (Macaulay & Crerar, 1998) or “other known” and “other unknown” (McGregor, Leplatre, Crerar, & Benyon, 2006). Study 2 sought to determine the effectiveness of each of these types of sounds for performing tasks within games, and to explore the experiential differences between the two types of sounds.…”

Sound Zone Interaction in Homes: Studying and Designing for Modification of Personal Soundscapes

“…One challenge when designing interventions into a soundscape is how to represent elements of the soundscape [84]. Representations impact an intervention in two ways.…”