Distinguishability vs. Distraction in Audio HTML Interfaces

Abstract

In this paper, we present the findings and conclusions from a user study on audio interfaces. In the experiment we discuss, we studied a framework for choosing sounds for audio interfaces by comparing a prototype interface against two existing audio browsers. Our findings indicate that our initial framework, which was described as a separation between recognizable and non-recognizable sounds, could be better interpreted in the context of the distinguishability and distraction level of various types of sounds. We propose a new definition of how a sound can be called distracting and how to avoid this when creating audio interfaces.