Blog Post 5

Sound Design for the Car Dashboard of an Electric Car.

• Interactions

• Adjusting climate controls
• Turn signals & Hazard lights
• Multimedia: Music, Radio, Map etc…
• Warnings: Ice, unserviceable items, blind-spot warnings.
• Throttle response: to inform the driver of their throttle input
• Seat heaters, steering wheel heater.
• Lights (High beams)
• Navigation warnings
• Phone notifications
• Parking brake
• Cursor position
• “Gear” shift sound

• The activity is driving and can vary between the time of day/night. Some of the interactions could be location based. For example; using high beams in a remote area. They could be seasonally based such as Ice warnings. The interaction sounds can be varied depending on the time of day such as a more involved soundscape during later parts of the day in order to keep the driver stimulated, should the driver desire to enable this function.
• Feedback
  i. Adjusting climate controls: Different sounds for increasing/decreasing temperature. Unique sounds for seat/steering wheel heaters in order for the driver to recognize them without taking eyes off the road for an extended period of time.
  ii. Turn signal: must maintain a consistency with the way that turn signals sound today in order to not confuse drivers. Sound can be slightly updated but must signal to drivers what’s happening.
  iii. Multimedia: hard sounds for when pressing buttons, long sustained sounds should be avoided to not clutter the sound environment. There is great opportunity here for creativity. Sound design can be used here to really set the soundscape apart as it is not related to the critical operation of the vehicle.
  iv. Warnings: should be slightly abrasive but not startling to get the drivers attention without risking an accident (Material Design Editors).
  v. Throttle: A sound should be associated with the throttle input to allow the driver to accurately modulate how fast/slow they want the car to go. This should function in the same way that an engine tells us how hard we are pushing the car.
  vi. GPS/Nav: less harsh sounds should be used for nav purposes. Short, concise sounds should be used so whatever information they are trying to deliver can be delivered with good efficiency.
  vii. Phone alerts: should mimic what exists in current phone technology so that the driver understands what kind of notifications they are receiving.

• Care should be taken to prioritize how often and important each sound occurs so that a sound that is used often may not become agitating to the driver. (Material Design Editors).

• If the car was a sporty, Tesla-esque electric car, the sound design would be sleek, and ominous. “Bubbly” sounds would be avoided because it goes against the physical design of the car and the attitude it brings with it (Material Design Editors). Instead, lower pitched, almost hollow sounds would be used.
• Some of the sounds that could be used can be found here: https://soundcloud.com/user-486799483/blog-post-5-ui-examples In the clip, examples for the cursor sound, a multimedia sound, and the sound for throttle input can be found in that order.

Works Cited
Material Design Editors. “Applying sound to UI” Material Design Accessed April 11, 2020 from https://material.io/design/sound/applying-sound-to-ui.html#ambient-sounds