SAP Product Insights
Sound Experience
Project Duration: ~7 weeks
Role: User Researcher
Tools: Mural, Respondent.io, MS Powerpoint
The SAP Fiori Design Systems team wanted to add new sounds and tones to the user experience of our enterprise software products.
Background
Sound experience was a new research category for me, so I began reviewing existing research produced by other researchers. I learned there are many factors that go into how a user would react to a sound, for instance, the type of instrument used, the pitch level, cultural backgrounds, volume level, length of sound, and more.
A music producer provided me sound samples to test with and I outlined the research plan.
Sound samples used in the study.
Research Goals
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Gain a deeper understanding of how enterprise software users use sounds in their daily work.
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Understand how the use of sound in our work environments have changed due to the pandemic.
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Understand how sound samples align with the user's mental model and expectations.
Target Sample Size
Looking for enterprise software users who have some or all sound notifications enabled on their device(s).
# of Participants: 15
Location: USA
Age Range: 18 - 60 years
Gender: Male & Female
Occupations: Financial Analyst, Sales Manager, Sales Representative, Warehouse Manager, Data Professional, IT Professional, Human Resources Analyst, Accountant, Consultant, Shipping & Distribution Manager, Procurement Officer
Screener
Aside from general demographics, I wanted to get context of our participants environment, sound usage, and make sure their job role required the use of enterprise software. Since this study is more broad, I didn't need to get too specific in my criteria. I asked the following questions in a screener:
What is your job role? Open-ended
What kind of work environment do you work in? e.g., Home office, On-site single office, On-site open-plan office, Co-working
Which device(s) do you use when using enterprise software for work? Desktop or laptop, mobile, other
How often do you wear headphones while working? Most of the time, sometimes, infrequently, never
Do you enable notification or application sounds during work? Yes, enable all...Sometimes, enable some...No, I disable all.
Methodology
01
Deep Dive Questions
During the introduction of the 1 hour long study session, I put together a set of questions to probe the participant's usage of sound, how and when they utilize it, and how it differs between softwares and apps.
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How do you use sounds in your professional environment?
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Have you turned sounds on or off in any software? Why and in which software?
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Do you have notification sounds turned on or off? (e.g., Do Not Disturb, Focus Mode)
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How do you use sounds in your private life? (e.g., personal cellphone, iPad)
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In which situations do you have sound on, off, or vibrations? Why and in which apps?
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Thinking about your work setting post-pandemic, has your behavior around sound changed at all during your workday? (e.g., Notification sounds on/off, listening to more Spotify)
02
Card Sort Activity
I decided to utilize a card sort activity with the sound samples to find out which sounds had a higher association with certain UI events.
I instructed participants to (1) listen to a sound sample, (2) provide immediate feedback, (3) rate the sound on a Likert scale, and (4) drag the corresponding sound sample into a category of a UI event they see fit.
My initial UI event categories included alerts, success, errors, notifications, actions, and I provided a separate space for participants to create their own categories. At the end, I asked if there were any sounds and categories they felt were missing based on what samples were presented.
First iteration of our card sort board. Mural does not support audio!
Research Plan Revisions
I ran a pilot study to receive feedback for improvement from other researchers and observe if there were any holes in my research plan. Based on the following observations, we tweaked the research plan to reflect the changes.
Context matters.
Set a scenario for the participant to imagine themself in.
It was difficult to decide what UI event a sound sample would fit when listening to these sounds out of context and what appears to be out of thin air. To set the stage, I asked the participant which software they use in their daily work and asked them to imagine the sounds coming from that software at their everyday work station.
Order matters. Ask the participant for their rating before they begin to put it in context and begin overthinking.
Sometimes while conducting the study, the order in which steps happen tend to shift. I noticed that if the participant rated the sound after placing it in a category rather than before, then the rating would increase or decrease depending on what category it was associated with. To get a more accurate preliminary rating, I had to stay firm and consistent in asking for the rating after the participant listened to it. I can set a baseline for how satisfied they were with the sound outside of context.
Define phrases.
Don't leave room for misinterpretation.
There was confusion as to what the difference was between "Notification" and "Alert". The interpretation of these category titles was up to the participant to distinguish. In the iterated card sort activity, we included a brief description of the phrase to clarify the definition and provide examples.
Revised card sort board
Deliverables
Interview notes were compiled in a Mural board with each participant color-coded. From the results, I should be able to identify the following patterns and findings: (1) sounds most frequently associated with a specific category, (2) most disliked sounds, (3) other categories created that were missing, (4) qualitative feedback of sounds, and (5) a score for each sound.
Interview note-taking guide using Mural
Future Direction
I am glad to have gotten the experience to learn how to handle sounds in a research study. Tools I typically use, such as Mural and FigJam, were not audio compatible so I used Microsoft Powerpoint. I was very interested in the qualitative feedback I received surrounding sound - the adjectives used to describe sound, how a sound made a participant feel in the inside, what the sound reminds them of, and how participants physically responded and reacted. It was intriguing to learn how humans interact with sound, outside of colors and visuals.
For next steps, I would like to move forward with sounds that were most frequently sorted in a category and build a prototype with engineers so that participants would be able to interact with a demo and hear the sounds live in context to validate the sound with what the user's expectations are.
