Re: Sound effects

[Karl Lattimer <karl qdh org uk>]

On Fri, 2008-12-12 at 11:38 +0100, Patryk Zawadzki wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 11:20 AM, Iain * <iaingnome gmail com> wrote:
> > This brings up another point that I forgot. The actual difficulty of
> > initially working out what a sound means.
> > Because the sounds are arbitrary there is no expectation[1] on the
> > part of the user that a certain action should create a sound
> > Which means that whenever a user hears a sound they need to try to
> > work out what it means. Was that swish new email or
> > CD burning finished? The user closes the laptop lid and hears
> > "lid-close" sound, thinks "what was that sound?" and opens the laptop
> > to check.
> 
> Actually all the sounds have (almost) complete context including full
> text alternative for assistive technologies so you could either opt
> for the screen reader to read the description aloud or just ask it
> "what was that" from time to time.
> 

On OSX you can have dialog boxes announced to you which is pretty good.
For instance "Excuse me, your computer needs your attention, system
updates are available" the announcement happens after a delay, the basic
timeline works like this;

 * Update icon bounces
 * After a short delay a sound is emitted
 * After a longer delay the announcement comes

This is useful even to people who don't require assistive technologies 

BR,
 K