Abstract
The human sense of hearing is characterised by the ability to gather a lot of information that surrounds us, that is why this sense, compared to sight, is, first of all, considered a powerful warning system. Furthermore, from hearing everyday sounds, we can derive a lot of diversified information: the size and the shape of objects, the material properties, the quality of a product and many others features of an artefact or a context, even if they are very sophisticated. This is even more true if we consider this sense beyond the sensory boundaries, that is in a crossmodal and synesthetic approach. Research in the field of product sound design has often dealt with the issue of how to make a product silent, renouncing to enhance the experience of a product with proper sound design. Today, we are finally aware that within product design the sound brings important carrier of information that people use in interaction with the environment and objects. As objects and spaces are no longer assumed as lifeless elements—they are, instead, part of a flow of communication between human and environment, human and products—a flow of messages interpreted by our brain is becoming a key aspect for consumer science. The positive relations between product and user are commonly known with the concept of “product affordance”. These relationships do not have to be visible, known, or explicit. Quite often, all the affordances of everyday objects are not declared by the designer himself. Sound can be assumed as a driver for the meaning of a product, with the benefits of having more intelligible, identity-led and pleasurable products.
This contribution was mostly developed by Dr. Eleonora Buiatti, as the main author.
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Notes
- 1.
“‘Bottom-up’ processing refers to processes that take a ‘lower level’ representation as input and create or modify a ‘higher level’ representation as output. Top-down processing refers to processes that operate in the opposite direction, taking a ‘higher level’ representation as input and producing or modifying a ‘lower level’ representation as output” (Palmer 1999, pp. 84–85).
- 2.
According to Gibson “affordances specify the potential interactions that humans can have in their niche” (Gibson 1979, p. 140). The environment offers affordances that humans have “effectivities” through which they can perceive these affordances in their interaction with the environment. “This does not depend on value, meaning or interpretation: […] any substance, any surface, any layout has some affordance for benefit or injury to someone” (Schifferstein and Hekkert 2008, p. 310).
- 3.
Norman also emphasised the need for research in real contexts, and testing design assumptions. He criticised the designer-centred perspective that one could simply decide, a priori, what the affordances of a design would be (Norman 1999).
- 4.
Eye-tracking is a technique of recording and analysing eye movements used in areas such as cognitive science, psychology, Human–Computer Interaction, market research, medical research, and others. From scientific research to commercial applications, eye-tracking is an important tool across many domains. Despite its range of applications, eye-tracking has yet to become a pervasive technology (Krafka et al. 2016).
- 5.
As regards the human footstep, our auditory abilities are complex: we may recognise friends and relatives when they approach simply by the footstep sound they make or identify the gender of a person in spite of the shoes they wear, simply by the sound of his or her walk in eight steps (Li et al. 1991). Through sound tones, we may come to know the mass centre of the walker, which is usually greater in men (Pastore et al. 2008).
- 6.
The evaluative conditioning theory is a variant of Pavlovian classical conditioning, through which a neutral stimulus acquires the affective valence of another stimulus with which it is paired (Zucco 2012).
- 7.
The main principle of Gestalt Psychology is that the mind creates a global whole with self organising tendencies. This principle affirms that when the human mind (perceptual system) forms a percept or “gestalt”, the whole has a reality of its own, independent of the parts.
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Dal Palù, D., De Giorgi, C., Lerma, B., Buiatti, E. (2018). From Multisensory to Multicognitive: The Sound of a Product is Other Than the Sum of Its Parts. In: Frontiers of Sound in Design. SpringerBriefs in Applied Sciences and Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76870-0_3
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