The Sounds | Notion

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Sound Design Research

Now that we have the basic functions for the social media platform set, we can now determine what sounds we need to be part of our Sound UI.

https://www.figma.com/file/gJ0kbYCv4D3nO9BcojBcth/Burp-World-Beta-User-Flow?type=whiteboard&node-id=63-970&t=JN1saKLkfwhsC1sW-4

General Inspiration

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd5muvEqk2Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XLEotme81s

Loading Loop

I’ve realised that loading sounds generally don’t exist in games, usually it’s a quiet screen with a looping animation on it. Loading is also not really highlighted sonically in personal computing either aside from the whirring of maybe a CD drive. I assume it’s because UX designers don’t want to bring attention to the time it is taking that something is loading.

I’m not sure if I want to do the same thing in terms of highlighting what is usually a pain point with software but at the very least, with no visual feedback, I need something to show the user that something is in fact happening behind the scenes and not leave them in the dark.

The experiences that do have audio sound something like the following:

Nintendo E-Shop

Wii Wireless Loading

Telephone Dial Tone

Accessible Pedestrian Sound

Computer sound effects for visual media

Muzak, elevator music, hold music

I think there are a few ways to categorise these sounds. There’s a literal representation of the work and processing being done in the form of a dial tone, especially pertinent when dial up internet was ubiquitous. Akin to seeing hackers in movies watching their command lines endlessly scroll after hitting enter, this is definitely a retro aesthetic choice.

Closely related to this is the diegetic riser, indicating that a download may be growing in size or showing anticipation for a final result (the file is dowloaded!). It’s interesting to see that most operating systems don’t actually make noise when downloading, but in movies it creates a visceral reaction to have a riser. I do think there’s a cool opportunity to create a dynamic sound that is mapped to the progress for a more real time representation of progress, although most modern UIs generally don’t show progress anymore.

There are more utilitarian sounds like the Accessible Pedestrian Sound that is found in Australia and New Zealand. That sound is an intermittent beep, designed to happen just frequently enough to show that the sound has been turned on. Not too imaginative but shows that the sound is needed. The Wii wireless loading sound is also similar in that it’s a single note repeated, albeit with a varied rhythm.

One of the more familiar loading sounds that I have personal experience with is the loading sound for the Nintendo E-Shop on Switch. It consists of an upwards arpeggio, followed by a rest and then a downwards arpeggio. This pattern repeats but is delineated by another moment of rest after a few repetitions.

iOS/MacOS

Google

TikTok

Windows 10

YouTube

Having a look at visual representations of “loading”, I noticed a few patterns:

Lots of circle elements