Designing with Sound

Chapter 7. Interviewing

THE INTERVIEW STAGE SHOULD give you a good feel for what’s possible, and for the overall scope of the project. After this, you should be prepared for an audit of what’s already been built, and of expectations for the product. Performing this quick review of the problem space is essential for discovering a project’s constraints and time frame. From hardware, frequency range, and tone to schedule, scope, and user experience, each aspect of the project needs to be fully investigated.

Share knowledge, ask questions, and manage expectations. By identifying and clustering the problems that need to be solved through the removal or addition of sound, you’ll find that the nature of the design space as a whole starts to take shape.

If the product is new or if you’re working with a startup, not all of the interviewing process covered in this chapter will be applicable, but it should still be a useful guide to direct your work.

Interviewing Stakeholders

If you are creating interfaces for a product or service, you are obligated to find out what kinds of sounds it makes or will make. You will need to investigate and go deep. If you are not an engineer for the project, talk to someone who is and find out what they know. Take stock of the things you can influence, as well those you cannot, bearing in mind that other brands or corporate entities might be playing sounds through your device as well. In the end, sound for interfaces deserves at least as much scrutiny as its ...