Designing Systems for the Creation and Evaluation of Dynamic Peripheral Soundscapes: A Usability Study

Abstract

Sonifications have proven useful as stand-alone displays and in bimodal audio-visual displays. Audio is powerful in a peripheral display due to its unobtrusive and omnidirectional nature. This study examined the creation and usability of peripheral auditory displays or ‘soundscapes' composed of ecological sounds. A system was created for dynamically generating soundscapes from a data source according to a threshold-based model. In this model, a percentage change in the data is mapped to an ecological sound that is played whenever that threshold has been met or exceeded. The system allows for the creation of soundscapes of arbitrary complexity, providing mechanisms for fading, relative gain, and random timing. With the system, a reference soundscape was developed for sonifying the stock market. This display was then presented to stock trader test participants as part of a usability evaluation.

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