1. Earcons, Auditory Icons and spearcons

2. Icons

3. What do we know about icon design?
Three types of Icons
Representational: simple pictures of familiar objects or operations
Abstract: geometric marks and shapes used to depict a specific object or operations
Semi-Abstract: a combination of representational pictures and abstract marks and shapes used to depict a specific object or operation
Have students identify the correct icon based on the definition.
Have students identify a representational, abstract and semi-abstract icon on their mobile interface
Activity: Identify a representational, abstract and semi-Abstract icon on your mobile interface

4. Icons vs. Earcons/Auditory icons
Auditory Icons/Earcons: Non-verbal Audio message used in the user interface to provide information and feedback about some object, operation or interaction (Blattner et al. p. 13)
Icons: Graphical symbols that visually represent information on a computer display (interface).
(Blattner et al. p. 12)
Icons are selectable and informational -- Earcons are informational only
Icons are permanent – Earcons are transient
Icons can be presented simultaneously – Earcons are difficult to present simultaneously.
Source: For the love of Icons
Source: Nicobido Sound Effects
Discussion: What advantages do icons have over earcons/auditory icons and vice versa?

5. Earcons and Auditory Icons

6. Auditory Icons
An Auditory Icon makes use of natural everyday sounds in order to represent objects and actions on the interface. For example, as a file is dragged across the screen the noise of paper scraping can be heard.
Auditory Icons can represent objects, operations and interactions
Objects:
Files
Menus
Prompts
Operations
Editing
Compiling
Executing
Interactions (happen between objects and operations)
Editing a file

7. Earcons
An Earcon is a structured audio message based on musical sounds which conveys to the user information about the tasks being carried out.
For example, while scrolling up and down a page the user gains information on their place in the document. At the top of the document the pitch of the note given is high; as the user scrolls down the pitch decreases.
They are not intuitive and therefore have to be learned by the user
In interfaces they have been shown to steer the emotional reaction of the user in support of a certain response (“you’ve got mail” sound prompting you to check your mail)

8. Representational Earcons
Gaver (1986) created 3 mappings between data and their auditory representations:
Symbolic mappings: rely on social convention for meaning (e.g. applause for approval)
Nomic mappings: are concrete representations (e.g. the sound of a closing metal cabinet for closing a file)
Metaphorical mappings: designed to have similarities (e.g. a sound with a falling pitch denotes a falling object)

9. Activity
Provide other examples of either symbolic, nomic or metaphorical mappings
In pairs, take out a cell phone and locate the list of notification sounds and play each one. Which of these sounds might be considered Symbolic, Nomic or Metaphorical. Can you remember which notifications they are mapped to?

10. Designers of earcons consider the following qualities
Rhythm: Listeners respond more readily to rhythm more than any other musical parameter
Pitch (perceived as highness and lowness)
Timbre (the color of a sound, like bright, brassy etc.)
Register (relative high/low set of pitches of a sound)
Dynamics (relative loudness or softness of a sound)
Length of an earcon (should be sufficient to convey the message effectively, and no longer)
(Blattner et al. pp 23-28)

11. Spearcons

12. Earcons vs. Spearcons
Spearcons: a brief non-speech sound that is created by speeding up the Text to Speech phase in particular ways, even to the point where the spearcon is no longer recognizable as a particular word. (Walker 2013)
Tested and used in auditory menu systems
Earcons: Non-verbal Audio message used in the user interface to provide information and feedback about some object, operation or interaction (Blattner et al. p. 13)
Reminder of the two readings for Friday: Read about the Georgia Tech Sonification Lab and Advanced Auditory Menus; also “Spearcons” (Walker, Nance, Lindsay).
Discussion: What advantages do Earcons/Auditory Icons have over Spearcons and vice versa?

13. Works Cited
Blattner, Sumikawa and Greenberg (1989). Earcons and icons: Their Structure and Common Design Principles. HCI Volume 4 pp 11-44
Gaver (1986). Auditory Icons: Using Sound in Computer Interfaces. HCI Volume 2 pp
Walker et al. (2013) Spearcons (speech-based earcons) improve navigation performance in advanced auditory menus. Human Factors 1 pp