Sound isn't noise
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Category: Interview
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Elif Ozcan Vieira, designer of product sounds
Designers devote too little attention to the sounds a product makes, according to Elif Ozcan Vieira (Industrial Design Engineering). She researched product sound perceptions and has developed a method for designing sounds for household appliances.
By: Maaike Mullier
Why should a designer design the sound of a household appliance?
"The sound a product makes when you use it or place it somewhere must fit the product. It must generate a positive experience. Users find this important at a time when the sound must match well with the product's functionality. A coffee machine for instance must have a pleasant sound, because people associate drinking a cup of coffee with relaxing."
But don't designers consider sound at all?
"Not nearly enough. They are slightly concerned with sound, such as the beeping of an alarm clock. But the sounds you hear when using a vacuum cleaner, like the click of the knob when you turn it on or the sound the motor makes are given very little attention. The only exception is the auto industry, where lots of creative energy and money are spent on designing the perfect sound for the engine or the closing of the doors. I think that designers need to be more aware of the fact that the sound of a product changes if the design - the material, for example - changes."
That makes sense, but how do you design sound?
"During my research, I developed a method for designing product sounds. The sound design process follows the same steps and runs parallel to the product design process. But there are two steps in the method that are really new and specifically for sound design. One of them involves making sound sketches. To do this, the designer collects objects that make sounds and then analyses how well the sound fits the particular product. This agrees with the visual sketches the designer makes to determine the product's shape in the beginning of the process. Then, to better visualize the design, the designer often makes a 3D computer model. Analogous to this, the designer makes a model of the sound. We've developed software that allows the designer to choose from a sort of library of sounds for all the various product parts. The motor, a lid that closes or a knob. The computer can be used to simulate the product's soundscape, which is all the various sounds the entire product makes."
How has your method been received?
"The students who I've let work with it found it really good and useful. And the academic world and industry are also very interested in it. Large product design companies realise that they don't know how to design sound, so they simply ignored it. Theories for color and form have existed for centuries, but not for sound. I'm one of the few who have researched sound design. A lot more knowledge must be developed, for example about our emotional responses to a product's sounds. Sound must fit with the product. It's obviously not my intention to regard sound as noise and therefore design a product in such as way that it makes as little noise as possible. My research group is thinking about the sound a hydrogen-powered car makes, for example. These cars can be very quiet, which is fine, but you also want to be able to hear if the engine is running and when you accelerate."
In addition to studying industrial design in Turkey, Elif Ozcan Vieira also created jingles and sound-effects for a local radio station. "I discovered that designing sound is really not so very different from visual design." After having worked for a few years as a multimedia designer in Lisbon, she came to Delft to pursue the relatively new research field of sound design. Her PhD research is focused on developing a method for designing the sound of a product.
More information: E. Ozcan Vieira, e.ozcan@tudelft.nl
