EDITOR Jonathan Grudin [e-mail]

technology, researchers still gave sound little formal thought. Most computer systems of the time relied on centralized computing resources (due to the high cost of hardware), so users were often provided only a green screen text terminal. Most such terminals had the ability to produce a beeping sound and would do so whenever a process completed, but otherwise, they did not utilize sound. This use of sound as a functional alert may have been a carryover from 1960s Teletype machines, which would ring a bell upon completing a transmission.

The important human-factors work of B.H. Deatherage, published during this period, remains relevant today. In 1972 Deatherage proposed the following set of criteria for deciding when to use audio rather than visual displays (see Table 1).

Though Deatherage was primarily concerned with human-factors issues related to the design of human-operated “equipment,” his guidelines are a useful starting point for designers considering functional sound in interfaces today.

The most important practical development in the use of sound in the 1970s came from games, which, beginning with Atari’s Pong, utilized sound as a standard element. What is particularly interesting about Pong is that its sounds performed absolutely no function and made no obvious aesthetic contribution. Pong could be played equally well with the sounds turned off; the noises were little more than a monotonous beeping. Pong thus represented a new form of sound aesthetic in computing: sound as character (or branding). Though Pong’s sounds were unhelpful (and potentially grating), they were a key element of the Pong experience. Modern examples of this are the startup sounds used by the Apple and Windows operating systems.

As technology improved, sound rapidly took

on a larger aesthetic role in video games. The simple music of Space Invaders, which debuted in 1978, sped up as the game progressed, creating a purposefully heightened state of anxiety in the player. Abstract sound was thus used to create emotional responses (much as film scores had been doing for decades).

The 1980s—Auditory Displays, Icons,
and more Video Games

The 1980s marked a new era for sound and computing. With faster microprocessors and cheaper memory, the ability to record, play back, and synthesize sound became widespread, stirring greater interest in its use. Accompanying a broader interest in human-computer interaction, significant attention was given to sound and computing in the 1980s and ’90s.

In 1982 the Commodore 64 was released and became the best-selling personal computer of all time. A built-in sound chip allowed it to produce a greater range and depth of sounds than many of its consumer-oriented predecessors; it proved a popular platform for early computer games. As a result, computer and video game music became an entire genre in and of itself. Sound in computer games also began to take on more than a purely aesthetic role: Music often alerted players to a change in the game (such as a level timer running out), and sounds with an identifiable source were used to signal off-screen events. In 1984 the classic Epyx game, Impossible Mission, even used musical puzzles as game elements, thus bringing the use of sound back into the functional realm.

Also in 1982, Sarah Bly presented her seminal work on information sonification to the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Bly’s

[ 2] Deatherage, B. H.
“Auditory and Other
Sensory Forms
of Information
Presentation.” In Human
Engineering Guide
to Equipment Design
(Revised Edition),
edited by H. P. Van Cott
and R. G. Kinkade.
Washington D.C.: U.S.
Government Printing
Office, 1972.

1. The message is simple.

2. The message is short.

3. The message will not be referred to later. Fewer paid workers 4. The message deals with events in time. 5. The message calls for immediate action. 6. The visual system of the person is overburdened. 7. The receiving location is too bright or dark—adaptation integrity is necessary. 8. The person’s job requires him to move about continually.

• Table 1: When to use the auditory or visual form of presentation [ 2].

1. The message is complex.

2. The message is long.

3. The message will be referred to later.

4. The message deals with location in space.

5. The message does not call for immediate action.

6. The auditory system of the person is overburdened.

7. The receiving location is too noisy.

8. The person’s job allows him to remain in one position.