GUIDELINES FOR THE INTEGRATION OF AUDIO CUES INTO COMPUTER USER INTERFACES

Throughout the history of computers, vision has been the main channel through which information is conveyed to the computer user. As the complexities of man-machine interactions increase, more and more information must be transferred from the computer to the user and then successfully interpreted by the user. A logical next step in the evolution of the computer-user interface is the incorporation of sound, thereby using the sense of "hearing" in the computer experience. This thesis presents an initial set of guidelines to assist interface developers in designing an effective sight and sound user interface. It synthesizes various aspects of sound, human communication, computer-user interfaces, and psychoacoustics. The notion of an earcon is introduced. Earcons are audio cues used in the computer-user interface to provide information and feedback to the user about some computer object, operation, or interaction. A possible construction technique for earcons, the use of earcons in the interface, how earcons are learned and remembered, and the effects of earcons on their users are investigated. Because earcons are a language and human/computer communication issue, they are analyzed according to the three dimensions of linguistics: syntactics, semantics, and pragmatics.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Report; Master's Thesis
• Corporate Authors:

  Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

  7000 East Avenue
  Livermore, CA  United States  94550
• Authors:
  • Sumikawa, D A
• Publication Date: 1985-6

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: 110 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Design; Recommendations
• Uncontrolled Terms: Design criteria
• Old TRIS Terms: Auditory cues; Earcons (Audio cues); Man computer interaction
• Subject Areas: Design; Marine Transportation; Research;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00648761
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Maritime Technical Information Facility
• Report/Paper Numbers: UCRL-53656
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 21 1994 12:00AM