http://embeddedgurus.com/usability-bites/2009/05/more-smooth-sounds/ A Blog by Niall Murphy Fri, 21 Jan 2011 16:47:04 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://embeddedgurus.com/usability-bites/2009/05/more-smooth-sounds/comment-page-1/#comment-1897 Kuba Ober Fri, 21 Jan 2011 16:47:04 +0000 http://embeddedgurus.com/usability-bites/2009/05/31/more-smooth-sounds/#comment-1897 I've seen this idea in action in a public transit system somewhere in Japan. Each station had a particular tune assigned to it. The tune was played over the train car PA system just before rolling into the station. On a crowded train, where fellow passengers may be obscuring both outside view *and* the onboard displays, this was a great usability booster. I’ve seen this idea in action in a public transit system somewhere in Japan. Each station had a particular tune assigned to it. The tune was played over the train car PA system just before rolling into the station. On a crowded train, where fellow passengers may be obscuring both outside view *and* the onboard displays, this was a great usability booster.

]]> http://embeddedgurus.com/usability-bites/2009/05/more-smooth-sounds/comment-page-1/#comment-8 PatoId Tue, 23 Jun 2009 01:04:17 +0000 http://embeddedgurus.com/usability-bites/2009/05/31/more-smooth-sounds/#comment-8 Probably the people who made the wrong choices on how sounds should default were just too bothered by noise. I once worked on a device that had a tamper switch and emited an alarm when that tamper switch had been open. It was a very important function so we had to test it a lot of time and on several units, the amount of noise was amazing. The week we ran those tests for the first time I started dreaming beeps, I also started using my cell phone in only vibration mode as any high pitch noise would cause a headache. Then I discovered I could just put a piece of tape on top of each buzzer and the noise would be reduced to a point where it didn't bother me, too late :P Probably the people who made the wrong choices on how sounds should default were just too bothered by noise. I once worked on a device that had a tamper switch and emited an alarm when that tamper switch had been open. It was a very important function so we had to test it a lot of time and on several units, the amount of noise was amazing. The week we ran those tests for the first time I started dreaming beeps, I also started using my cell phone in only vibration mode as any high pitch noise would cause a headache. Then I discovered I could just put a piece of tape on top of each buzzer and the noise would be reduced to a point where it didn't bother me, too late

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