Desirable Sound for Products as a Product of Design (original) (raw)

FROM SOUND QUALITY TO SOUND SYSTEMS: RETROSPECTIVE OF SOUND STUDIES APPLICABLE TO PRODUCT DESIGN

DYNA MANAGEMENT, 2020

The current socio-technological context encourages the increase of products with increasingly complex and advanced interfaces. Sound is a valuable resource capable of facilitating interaction between product and user, and conveying information about events of different nature and criticality.However, design engineering lacks unified knowledge and a consensus methodology that facilitates the characterization of sound during product development processes. This article presents a retrospective, critical and systematic review of the most relevant theoretical and practical contributions applied in design engineering, from different scientific perspectives. The result is a map of publications classified in 6 large blocks, ranging from initial psychoacoustic studies, through observations on sound semantics, to the most up-to-date approaches supported by communication theories. In this way, researchers and developers in design engineering are provided with a guide and introduction to the main key aspects of sound study and in its application to product design domain. The article collects the main bibliographical references indicating whether they are theoretical or experimental studies, the scientific field with which they relate, their chronological location, and highlighting their main contributions.

Closing the loop of sound evaluation and design

Proceedings of the 2nd …, 2006

Despite being a promising and lively playground, sound design is not a discipline as solid and established as visual or product design. We believe that the reason is to be found in the lack of design-oriented measurement and evaluation tools. The European project CLOSED (Closing the Loop Of Sound Evaluation and Design) aims at providing a functional-aesthetic sound measurement tool that can be profitably used by designers. At one end, this tool is linked with physical attributes of soundenhanced everyday objects; at the other end it relates to user emotional response. The measurement tool will be made of a set of easy-to-interpret indicators, which will be related to use in natural context, and it will be integrated in the product design process to facilitate the control of sonic aspects of objects, functionalities, and services encountered in everyday settings.

Sounding Objects: An Overview Towards Sound Methods and Techniques to Explore Sound Within a Design Process

Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Auditory Display - ICAD 2017, 2017

Sound is a neglected subject of today's products and services. The new technologies changed the way we interact with the people, objects and the world around us, thus, designers should aim at all senses, contemplating a multi sensorial experience. In this scenario sound becomes an important aspect to be considered during the project phase in a design process. Sound becomes part of the product identity and expression, the way the product talks to us. To foster this scenario designers should be aware of the possibilities and attributes of sound and how to explore them in a creative way. In this short paper we investigated published articles, workshops and publications to collect sound methods and techniques to be used into a design process. As a result, we proposed twenty essential sound methods that could be applied in a design thinking context. This is an ongoing research, part of a thesis experiment, since further methods and refinement could be added in the future.

Audio-visual interactions in product sound design

2010

Consistent product experience requires congruity between product properties such as visual appearance and sound. Therefore, for designing appropriate product sounds by manipulating their spectral-temporal structure, product sounds should preferably not be considered in isolation but as an integral part of the main product concept. Because visual aspects of a product are considered to dominate the communication of the desired product concept, sound is usually expected to fit the visual character of a product. We argue that this can be accomplished successfully only on basis of a thorough understanding of the impact of audio-visual interactions on product sounds. Two experimental studies are reviewed to show audio-visual interactions on both perceptual and cognitive levels influencing the way people encode, recall, and attribute meaning to product sounds. Implications for sound design are discussed defying the natural tendency of product designers to analyze the "sound problem" in isolation from the other product properties.

Frontiers of Sound in Design

SpringerBriefs in Applied Sciences and Technology, 2018

The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Audio-visual interactions in product sound design

Human Vision and Electronic Imaging XV, 2010

Consistent product experience requires congruity between product properties such as visual appearance and sound. Therefore, for designing appropriate product sounds by manipulating their spectral-temporal structure, product sounds should preferably not be considered in isolation but as an integral part of the main product concept. Because visual aspects of a product are considered to dominate the communication of the desired product concept, sound is usually expected to fit the visual character of a product. We argue that this can be accomplished successfully only on basis of a thorough understanding of the impact of audiovisual interactions on product sounds. Two experimental studies are reviewed to show audiovisual interactions on both perceptual and cognitive levels influencing the way people encode, recall, and attribute meaning to product sounds. Implications for sound design are discussed defying the natural tendency of product designers to analyze the "sound problem" in isolation from the other product properties.