| dc.description.abstract | This thesis investigates the design of audio for feedback in human-technology interaction—
auditory displays. Despite promising progress in research and the potential benefits, we
currently see little impact of audio in everyday interfaces. Changing interaction paradigms,
new contexts of use and inclusive design principles, however, increase the need for an
efficient, non-visual means of conveying information. Motivated by these needs, this work
describes the development and evaluation of a methodological design framework, aiming
to enhance knowledge and skill transfer in auditory display design and to enable designers
to build more efficient and compelling auditory solutions.
The work starts by investigating the current practice in designing audio in the user interface.
A survey amongst practitioners and researchers in the field and a literature study
of research papers highlighted the need for a structured design approach. Building on
these results, paco – pattern design in the context space has been developed, a framework
providing methods to capture, apply and refine design knowledge through design patterns.
A key element of paco, the context space, serves as the organising principle for patterns,
artefacts and design problems and supports designers in conceptualising the design space.
The evaluation of paco is the first comparative study of a design methodology in this
area. Experts in auditory display design and novice designers participated in a series of
experiments to determine the usefulness of the framework. The evaluation demonstrated
that paco facilitates the transfer of design knowledge and skill between experts and novices
as well as promoting reflection and recording of design rationale. Alongside these principle
achievements, important insights have been gained about the design process which lay the
foundations for future research into this subject area.
This work contributes to the field of auditory display as it reflects on the current practice
and proposes a means of supporting designers to communicate, reason about and build on
each other’s work more efficiently. The broader field of human-computer interaction may
also benefit from the availability of design guidance for exploiting the auditory modality to
answer the challenges of future interaction design. Finally, with paco a generic methodology
in the field of design patterns was proposed, potentially similarly beneficial to other
designing disciplines. | en_US |
