Day 28 - More Ringtones
Man, that post from yesterday was not a pleasant one to listen to! That’s the one you choose when you’re setting your phone alarm for 4:45AM and you CANNOT sleep through it because you have to catch a flight.
This one is more pleasant and unobtrusive.
Day 27 - Ringtones
In keeping with my “creative refresh” mission this week I’m going to play around with a more compositional prompt - ringtones. Nowadays phone ringtones are often highly produced micro-compositions. I love it. I want to assign custom ringtones to each of my contacts.
So eventually I’ll try to write some ringtones that are at that level of craft and care, but to be honest I’m slammed with work and I don’t have much time to get beyond fun sound design loops. It’s still fun and it’s helping me get back on the horse with this project.
Day 26 - Retro
I needed some help getting back in the swing of things with the project so I decided to fire up some synths and make some slightly retro sounding patches.
Day 25: Smart Devices
Today’s sounds are intended for a hypothetical smart lock and associated app. When working on something like this I find it tricky to strike a balance between “secure” and “welcoming” in the design. Nobody wants to trust their home security to a product that sounds too cute or friendly, but if a major selling point is the convenient and frictionless interface then it is important to create a positive emotional connection with the user. This is a place where UX research is so helpful, both for understanding what users are seeking from the product and also for understanding whether your sound design is signalling what you intended.
Day 24: Smart Devices
This might not completely fit the category of “Smart” device, but I’ve been thinking a lot about elevators and how they are a missed opportunity for experience design. The standard set of UX sounds associated with an elevator have remained more or less unchanged for decades. But within an environment like a corporate headquarters, hotel, or upscale retail location there is a lot of room for experimentation with branded sound design and visitor experience enhancement.
Rather than having “Elevator Music” what if we thought of the elevator the way we would a vehicle? What if elevators signalled whether they were going up or down with a sonic signature? What if the sounds you encounter on board the elevator mesh with the sounds you hear in the lobby when it arrives?
Day 23: Smart Devices
A momentary diversion…I just loved these pluck sounds and had to play around with them for a bit. They do sound a bit like something playful and childlike, and smart toys and child-friendly devices are certainly increasingly common.
Day 22: Smart Devices
Today’s sound set is designed for a bedside smart clock/alarm/sleep aid, like a Hatch or similar device. The goal is to create something that is soothing, harmonically rich, and intelligible without the use of voice responses.
Day 21: Smart Devices
As our connections and interactions with digital technology become more diversified and distributed we will need to rely more and more on UI sounds to communicate with users. I’ve never worked on vehicles before, and I’m sure there are many factors I haven’t considered, but it is an interesting challenge to think about how to construct a UI system for rideshares and autonomous operations.
For today’s post I used a single evolving pad as a source for three vehicle sounds: a pedestrian warning sound, which I thought might be interesting if it moved up the harmonic sequence as the vehicle accelerated rather than moving up in pitch; a backup/reverse warning sound; and an alert sound for passengers, possibly to mark the end of an autonomous cab ride or to remind you to buckle up. This is new territory for me but I’m eager to explore more!
Day 20: Patch Exploration
Day 19: Patch Exploration