Spatial audio in small screen device displays (original) (raw)

Abstract

Our work addresses the problem of (visual) clutter in mobile device interfaces. The solution we propose involves the translation of technique-from the graphical to the audio domain-for expliting space in information representation. This article presents an illustrative example in the form of a spatialised_audio_ progress bar. In usability tests, participants performed background monitoring tasks significantly more accurately using this spatialised audio (a compared with a conventional visual) progress bar. Moreover, their performance in a simultaneously running, visually demanding foreground task was significantly improved in the eye-free monitoring condition. These results have important implications for the design of multi-tasking interfaces for mobile devices.

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  1. Department of Computing Science, University of Gasgow, 7 Lilybank Gardens, G12 8QQ, Glasgow, Scotland
    Ashely Walker & Steven Brewster

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  1. Ashely Walker
  2. Steven Brewster

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Correspondence toAshely Walker.

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Walker, A., Brewster, S. Spatial audio in small screen device displays.Personal Technologies 4, 144–154 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01324121

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