The Elements of Voice First Style

Chapter 16. Nonverbal Dialogue Marking

A technique that can help the designer compound the added benefits of voice and achieve even higher user satisfaction is the use of nonverbal audio: sounds such as beeps, blips, chimes, and music. Such markers, when deployed judiciously by the designer, can unobtrusively and gently cue the user to do the right thing at the right time, and even add some “audio color” to the user’s experience. Such audio serves to punctuate interactions, mentally position users in the dialogue, and efficiently establish quick associations between sound and function that would otherwise be cumbersome to communicate with explicit, spoken articulations.

Types of Nonverbal Audio

There are five basic types of nonverbal audio, each useful only for certain dialogue contexts and situations:

Beep or blip

This is a simple sound with a static pitch. It can be the traditional 1-second beep (for instance, the classic one heard after “Leave your message after the beep”), or a shorter half-second variation of that sound.

Chime

A chime is a slightly more complex sound pattern that is usually used to announce blocks, sections, or new contexts, and to mark transitions.

Earcon

Also known as an “auditory icon,” the earcon is the audio equivalent of the visual icon and similarly serves to impart to the user a specific meaning when encountered. For instance, the sound of a bat cracking and a crowd cheering could signal the beginning of the baseball scores section in a dialogue. ...