science

Sonic interaction design

Sonic interaction design is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Sonic interaction design rather than just read about it. In short: Sonic interaction design is the study and exploitation of sound as one of the principal channels conveying information, meaning, and aesthetic/emotional qualities in interactive contexts. Sonic interaction design is at the intersection of interaction design and sound and music computing.

Key takeaways

Sonic interaction design belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Sonic interaction design to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Sonic interaction design from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Sonic interaction design is the study and exploitation of sound as one of the principal channels conveying information, meaning, and aesthetic/emotional qualities in interactive contexts. Sonic interaction design is at the intersection of interaction design and sound and music computing. If interaction design is about designing objects people interact with, and such interactions are facilitated by computational means, in sonic interaction design, sound is mediating interaction either as a display of processes or as an input medium.

Research areas

Perceptual, cognitive, and emotional study of sonic interactions Research in this area focuses on experimental scientific findings about human sound reception in interactive contexts. During closed-loop interactions, the users manipulate an interface that produces sound, and the sonic feedback affects in turn the users’ manipulation. In other words, there is a tight coupling between auditory perception and action. Listening to sounds might not only activate a representation of how the sound was made: it might also prepare the listener to react to the sound. Cognitive representations of sounds might be associated with action-planning schemas, and sounds can also unconsciously cue a further reaction on the part of the listener. Sonic interactions have the potential to influence the users’ emotions: the quality of the sounds affects the pleasantness of the interaction, and the difficulty of the manipulation influences whether the user feels in control or not.

Product sound design Product design in the context of sonic interaction design is dealing with methods and experiences for designing interactive products having a salient sonic behaviour. Products, in this context, are either tangible and functional objects that are designed to be manipulated, or usable simulations of such objects as in virtual prototyping. Research and development in this area relies on studies from other disciplines, such as:

product sound quality; acoustic ecology, i.e. the relationship, mediated through sound, between living beings and their environment; film sound; computer and video game sound; sound culture, i.e. the study of how the production and consumption of sound have changed throughout history and within different societies. In design research for sonic products a set of practices have been inherited from a variety of fields. Such practices have been tested in contexts where research and pedagogy naturally intermix. Among these practices it suffices to mention:

bodystorming, especially when combined with vocal sketching, where participants produce vocal imitations to mimic the sonic behavior of objects while they are being interacted with; theatrical practices, such as theatrical metaphors and dramatic performance; basic design, based on demonstrations and intersubjectivity; video prototyping with sonic overlays; Foley artistry in filmmaking; acting out sound dramas.

Interactive art and music In the context of sonic interaction design, interactive art and music projects are designing and researching aesthetic experiences where sonic interaction is the focus. The creative and expressive aspects – the aesthetics – are more important than conveying information through sound. Practices include installations, performances, public art and interactions between humans through digitally-augmented objects/environments. These often integrate elements such as embedded technology, gesture-sensitive devices, speakers or context-aware systems. The experience is in the focus, addressing how humans are affected by the sound, and vice versa. Interactive art and music allows researchers to question existing paradigms and models of how humans interact with technology and sound, going beyond paradigms of control (human controlling a machine). Users are part of a loop which includes action and perception. Interactive art and music projects invite explorative actions and playful engagement. There is also a multi-sensory aspect, especially haptic-audio and audio-visual projects are popular. Amongst many other influences, this field is informed by the development of the roles of instrument-maker, composer and performer merging. Artistic research in sonic interaction design is about productions in the interactive arts and performing arts, exploiting the role of enactive engagement with sound–augmented interactive objects.

Sonification Sonification is the data-dependent generation of sound, if the transformation is systematic, objective and reproducible, so that it can be used as scientific method. For sonic interaction design, sonification provides a set of methods to create interaction sounds that encode relevant data, so that the user can perceive or interpret the conveyed information. Sonification does not necessarily need to represent huge amounts of data in sound, but may only convey one or few data values in a sound. To give an example, imagine a light switch that, on activation would create a short sound that depends on the electric power consumed through the cable: more energy-wasting lamps would perhaps systematically result in more annoying switch sounds. This example shows that sonification aims to provide some information by using its systematic transformation into sound. The integration of data-driven elements in interaction sound may serve different purposes:

to allow the users to refine their actions via auditory feedback. Example: the sonification-enhanced drilling machine which indicates by sound when a wanted orientation to the wall is reached. to influence how humans perceive their own body movement. to create a sonic gestalt for the interaction which allows users to compare the detailed performance on repeated interactions: for instance rowing strokes may be sonified so that the sportsmen can better synchronize their action. to enable novel functions that would otherwise be not available (e.g. a bottle that displays by sound how much fluid is poured into glasses so that the users can more easily fill the equal amount of liquid in different glasses). Within the field of sonification, sonic interaction design acknowledges the importance of human interaction for understanding and using auditory feedback. Within sonic interaction design, sonification can help and offer solutions, methods, and techniques to inspire and guide the design of products or interactive systems.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sonic interaction design

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sonic interaction design claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Sonic interaction design before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Sonic interaction design ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Sonic interaction design

In research: Sonic interaction design appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Sonic interaction design in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Sonic interaction design is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Design, Multimodal interaction, Sound, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sonic interaction design outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Sonic interaction design in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Sonic interaction design means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Sonic interaction design out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sonic interaction design in simple terms?

Why does Sonic interaction design matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Sonic interaction design?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Sonic interaction design.