Sonic Information Design

Stephen Barrass

The International Community for Auditory Display (ICAD) is a multidisciplinary community that includes researchers with backgrounds in music, computer science, psychology, engineering, neuroscience, and the sonic arts. Although this multi-disciplinarity has been beneficial, it has also been the cause of clashes between scientific and artistic research cultures. This paper addresses this divide by proposing design research as a third and complementary approach that is particularly well aligned with the pragmatic and applied nature of the field. The proposal, called sonic information design, is explicitly founded on the design research paradigm. Like other fields of design, sonic information design aspires to make the world a better place, in this case through the use of sound. Design research takes a user-centered approach that includes participatory methods, rapid prototyping, iterative evaluation, situated context, aesthetic considerations, and cultural issues. The results are specific and situated rather than universal and general and may be speculative or provocative, but should provide insights and heuristics that can be reused by others. The strengthening and development of design research in auditory display should lay the path for future commercial applications.

Introduction	Sonic Information Design
Background	Conclusion
Evaluation in Visualization	Biography
Paradigms in HCI	References

Introduction	Sonic Information Design
Background	Conclusion
Evaluation in Visualization	Biography
Paradigms in HCI	References

Sonic Information Design

The three research paradigms identified in HCI can also be observed in the field of auditory display. The first wave of auditory display were the human factors engineering experiments in aircraft cockpits using sound to improve the ergonomic fit between man and machine (Pollack and Ficks 1954). The second wave of auditory display is the introduction of cognitive science in HCI experiments that modelled the user as an information processor to develop a general unified theory. In a chapter that reviews progress towards the theory of sonification, Walker and Nees observe that the multidisciplinary nature of the field has likely hindered progress and conclude that “the development of theory is difficult, especially in pragmatic and somewhat design-oriented fields like sonification” (Walker and Nees 2010).

The third wave of auditory display is signaled by the addition of aesthetics to the conference call for ICAD 2004 (Barrass and Vickers 2004) and a concert with sonifications that included aesthetics in the peer-review of selections (Barrass, Whitelaw and Bailes 2006). Papers presented at the conference included a discussion of aesthetics in the auditory interface (LePaitre and McGregor 2004), an aesthetic perspective on auditory representations in computer programming (Vickers 2004), a description of aesthetic considerations in a sonification of weather data for a public exhibition (Polli 2004), and a site-specific outdoor installation of sonified sensors (Paine 2004). The phenomenological approach in auditory display has been further developed through the integration of embodied cognition (Worrall 2010; Roddy and Furlong 2014) and phenomenological philosophy (Vickers, Hogg and Worrall 2017).

These epistemological paradigms provide a framework for understanding debates between research cultures in ICAD. However, design research is missing from this analysis. In his comments at ICAD 1996, Gregory Kramer suggested that design research could pave the way for commercial applications. Since then there have been fragments of design research at ICAD, such as design patterns (Adcock and Barrass 2004; Frauenberger, Stockman, Putz and Höldrich 2009), and participatory design (Goudarzi, Vogt and Höldrich 2015). However the lack of (practical) research applications points to the need to more fully promote and support the development of design methods in this field. Although the field of sound design already exists and extends from its origins in film soundtrack to the design of product sounds, the focus on narrative and affect cannot, in general, be applied to the design of sounds for informational purposes. The closely related term sonic interaction design extends sound design to more complex interactive interfaces, but again does not explicitly address information. The term sonification design comes close, but the definition of sonification as a technical mapping from data into sound (Hermann 2008) does not include considerations of user diversity, tasks, data types, contexts, aesthetics, and cultural issues.

The need for a user-centered approach to auditory display leads to the proposal of Sonic Information Design as a research paradigm with design as its foundation. The focus on applications with impact on society differentiates Sonic Information Design from human factors, cognitive science, and phenomenological approaches. Like other fields of design, Sonic Information Design aims to make the world a better place, in this case by using sound. Drawing on multiple theories, such as embodied and situated cognition, Sonic Information Design considers meaning to arise through subjective experience in environmental, social, and cultural contexts. Like interaction design, Sonic Information Design pays particular attention to physical, cognitive, emotional, and aesthetic aspects that extend to fun, playfulness, and pleasure. Sonic Information Design takes an agile approach that includes users and domain experts as participatory researchers and collaborators (Beck 2001). The design process includes phases of divergent ideation, explorative evaluation, and convergent iteration (Giacomin 2014). Summative evaluation may include critical reflection on process and practice, usability analysis, psychoacoustic studies, and qualitative surveys. Examples of sonification are considered to include sensory information that cannot be captured by text or statistics. Formative evaluation through qualitative reflection and expert critiques is considered a useful and valid contribution to knowledge (Worrall 2017).

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