Sound and UX Design
Sounds are a part of the user experience. Imagine you've finished shopping. You put your credit card in the chip reader and you get the alarming "beep beep" as if something went wrong. No matter how pleasant the shopping experience was or how nice the checkout person, the last thing you'll hear before exiting the store is that grating noise. It's a great example of sounds that are unpleasant, emotionally distressing, and degrading to everyday experiences. Sound is a critical element when creating an engaging and compelling user experience.
Games can be greatly enhanced by sound effects and musical scores. Sites and applications with engaging animations and dynamic visual depend on solid sound design. Even the simplest sites can benefit from user feedback and meaningful signals through audio.
Sounds can form part of the reward system in completing tasks. For example, sound effects that trigger with completing a puzzle make it much more satisfying. A pleasant chime as the user achieves a specific goal give short-term rewards, while the user works towards a larger goal. Sound can provide audio feedback, to complement visual feedback. Buttons make noises when clicked, a clicking metronome can count you in before recording. Sounds can help reinforce that something was done as a further way to acknowledge the user's actions. In some cases, sounds can highlight something in a visually busy screen. In time-critical applications, they can communicate something faster than visuals might alone.
User interfaces, since the command-line, have used sound effects in the form of simple, audible beeps, to warn of errors. Today, apps such as Twitter or Facebook, use well-placed sounds for notifications and alerts. As we move into technologies away from screens, speech and gesture interfaces are increasingly dependent on audio input and feedback.
Sounds are able to create powerful reactions on deep, instinctive levels. A baby's cry can set a new parent into action without conscious thought. A sharp warning hiss of a snake can trigger adrenaline. Hearing that favorite song on the radio might bring a smile before you realize it.
How someone feels at any given moment is very often affected directly by what they hear. People have the ability to remember hundreds, if not thousands of songs and voices. Sounds are remembered more easily because of the impression they make on your mind, and they also are much harder to ignore.