(Georgia Institute of Technology, 1994-11)
Mynatt, Elizabeth D.
Current research in auditory interfaces has produced a number of interesting interfaces without resulting in the compilation of design guidelines for creating descendent interfaces. This lack of a common design methodology may be partially responsible for the scarcity of commercial interfaces that make use of sound. Factors that affect the usability of auditory interfaces are identified, and are used as the basis for a simple design methodology for incorporating auditory icons in human-computer interfaces. Two steps in this methodology are evaluating the identifiability of auditory cues and evaluating the possible conceptual mappings between the cues and concepts in interfaces. Two experiments that explore these issues are summarized.