Soundstorm

Abstract

Product sounds are important in our interactions with them. The temporal and context-dependent nature of sound makes it difficult to design them. There is a semantic gap between how we talk about sound and how it is embodied. Sound-driven design aims to improve this in two ways. It proposes a human-centered design approach, focusing on designing for the listening experience instead of purely the sound. Secondly, it proposes a collaborative approach, iteratively designing the listening experience with all stakeholders throughout the project.

The four stakeholders of sound-driven design work and design with sounds in different ways. Sound designers are brought in late into a project and work on sound solitarily. They are experts at bridging semantic gaps. Acoustic engineers are solution-oriented and think of sound in terms of noise elimination. Design researchers are experts in guiding design processes and incorporating user needs but are ill-equipped for sound. Expert users are well attuned to the sounds of their context, which is vital information for sound-driven design.

During group ideation, participants use generative session methods to generate solutions to a design problem. If this collaboration is managed effectively, a group outperforms its members. Generated ideas are larger in quantity, quality, variety, and originality. During idea generation, participants use their creative cognition to generate ideas. The dual pathways model of creativity states that creative cognition is the result of persistence and flexibility in thought. These two cognitive processes can be primed to enhance creativity.

Based on this theory I designed Soundstorm, a quick and collaborative card game. Players take turns making product sounds based on randomized prompts. It should be played before starting a generative session, and positively influences its outcomes. Soundstorm is meant to improve creative cognition by priming the persistence and flexible cognitive process. Soundstorm allows players to practice vocal expressions. Playing a collaborative game increases social cohesion.
Soundstorm was validated using a protocol study (n=18), in which 3 groups played a game before a brainstorm, and 3 did not. There was no increase in the number of ideas generated. There is an increase in iteration for the Soundstorm group, but the effect was not significant.

Future research into sound-driven design ideation should explore the fundamentals of sonic and verbal generative methods. Furthermore, sound-driven design should be applied in a collaborative project where problem and solution are allowed to coevolve over multiple iterations.