Abstract
Further progress after 20 years of research is captured in The Sonification Handbook (Hermann, Hunt, & Neuhoff, 2011). In the first chapter, on sonification theory, Bruce Walker and Michael Nees described the value of a unified theory as a basis for testable hypotheses for research and practical guidelines for design. However, they concluded that “the development of theory remains difficult, especially in pragmatic and somewhat design-oriented fields like sonification” (Walker & Nees, 2011, p. 31). This conclusion suggests that design research could be a way forward. Design research is aligned with the pragmatic nature of sonification and bridges between scientific and artistic research paradigms.
To refer to design research in sonification, we coined the term sonic information design, which includes auditory displays, sonification, auditory user interfaces, and the like. In this special issue, we aim to investigate how design research approaches can be applied in sonic information design. Scrutinizing approaches, tools, strategies, and design practices will produce a taxonomy and a blueprint of the next generation of sonic information design.
The proposal that sonic information design should be explicitly founded on the design research paradigm assumes that there is no universal or optimal solution and that different designs will be more effective for different users, tasks, and contexts. Drawing on theories of embodied and situated cognition, sonic information design pays particular attention to the phenomenology of user experience, which includes physical, cognitive, emotional, and aesthetic aspects that extend to fun, playfulness, and pleasure.
Sonic information design supports actions and behaviors in authentic, situated, real-world contexts that include environmental, social, and cultural considerations. Sonic information design takes an agile approach that includes users as participatory researchers and collaborators. The design process includes phases of divergent ideation, explorative evaluation, and convergent iteration.
Two of the articles included here tackle persistent issues about current medical alarms; namely, poor learnability and alarm fatigue. Edworthy and her colleagues show how their design research approach was successful and discuss practical issues relevant to the updating of the current auditory alarm standard and the implementation of medical alarm signals in the real world.
Schlesinger and his colleagues describe how they designed a dynamic alarm system that self-regulates alarm loudness based on the environmental noise level and includes patients’ physiological information.
Segura and Pérez introduce sound as one of the essential variables of the product design process. They emphasize how sound can contribute to functional structures, technical features, and user experience by addressing specific design methodologies and examples.
In his comment, Nees discusses and critiques the search for a “killer app” of sonification from the human factors perspective. He then demonstrates that auditory graphs can be a successful example of sonic information design to improve interactions between people and technologies.
We hope that this special issue will provide exciting challenges and make an important contribution to the design of more intuitive and natural sonic information that will have an impact across the entire human factors community. We thank all the authors, reviewers, and Ergonomics in Design editorial board members for their contributions to this special issue on sonic information design. Stay tuned for Part 2!