The influence of sound properties on the semantic associations of product sounds

Download

index.pdf

Date

2010

Author

Verviers, Claire Juliette

Metadata

Show full item record

Item Usage Stats

175
views

61
downloads

To be able to design product sounds that elicit a predetermined expression a study was performed to find how sound properties influence the experience of their expression. Two explorative studies using figurative against abstract visual stimuli were performed to create insight in how people experience sounds and to create a list of usable semantic associations. This list was ordered in 25 expression categories each under one descriptive semantic association. A third study using mind mapping was conducted to examine what sound properties were considered as influences on a few of these categories and to optimize the categorization. The sound properties that were considered as most influential were sharpness and noisiness. The final descriptive semantic associations were placed on a scale with the axes unpleasant-pleasant and calm-active. From these the following were considered to be most usable: activated, angry, boring, calm, chaotic, cheerful, eerie, energetic, pleasant, relaxed, trustworthy and unpleasant. In a fourth study the sounds of six domestic appliances were chosen and adjusted for sharpness, noisiness and their combination. They were evaluated for their valued expression on the 12 semantic associations by 30 participants. The results showed that increased sharpness elicited a more unpleasant and activated expression and decreased sharpness elicited a more pleasant and calm expression. This indicates that a general influence of sound properties can be established to design sounds for expression.

Subject Keywords

Sounds., Industrial design.

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12612412/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/20346

Collections

Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis

Suggestions

OpenMETU
Core

Analysis of the narrative constructed around products : a case study on tupperware products Karademir Arun, Banu; Işık Tüneri, Figen; Department of Industrial Design (2007) This study primarily aims to examine the ways in which the social and cultural meanings are utilized to construct a narrative around a product. Thus, a narrative analysis is employed by conducting a case study on Tupperware products, mainly due to the recognition that a comprehensive narrative, which is elaborated by social and cultural meanings, is constructed around Tupperware products because of the unique retailing technique.
A Lexicon for product experience related communication Onuşluel, Gonca; Özcan Vieira, Elif; Pedgley, Owaın Francıs; Department of Industrial Design (2012) In this thesis, product experiences were analyzed in human-product interaction context. The terminology to describe product experiences were gathered and grouped with the studies carried out during the thesis. The conceptual network of product experiences were attempted to be established by examining the stages of human-product interaction in the limitations of the studies. The gathered terminology was composed of both concrete and abstract product features. The abstract product features which are used for ...
The emotional reactions of tactual qualities on handheld product experiences Özcan, Nergis; Gürsu, Hakan; Department of Industrial Design (2008) This is an attempt to analyze the evaluation criteria of tactual qualities on handheld product experiences by users. The study was conducted with the users selected from different work groups and different ages for exploring the meanings which are attributed to these tactual qualities by them. The thesis is expected to shed a light in the design studies by designers. After identifying the products and the participants, the tactual experiences were analyzed throughout the study to find out the keywords which...
The effect of emotional facial expressions of a virtual character on people’s performance for interactive digital tasks Karadoğaner, Alper; Toksöz, Mehmet Refik; Visch, Valentijn; Department of Industrial Design (2010) This thesis investigates the effect of emotional facial expressions of a virtual character on people’s performance for interactive digital tasks. The basic and universal emotions are used in the study. Facial expressions of these emotions are created according to the Facial Action Coding System (FACS), which is a system that describes facial movements in the face. The patterns of cooccurences of Action Units (descriptions of facial movements defined in FACS) for basic emotions are also implemented into emot...
A comparative analysis of designers’ intended messages and users’ perceived messages embodied in product appearance Khalaj, Javad; Pedgley, Owaın Francıs; Department of Industrial Design (2009) This study discusses product form perception within the context of communication. The emphasis is on meanings attributed to product visual form, and more specifically the correspondence between messages designers intend users to receive and the messages that users actually receive. Four groupings of appearance-based product attributes are identified; 1) social values and positions; 2) usability and interaction; 3) visual qualities; and 4) personality characteristics. The study was driven by the main researc...

Citation Formats

C. J. Verviers, “The influence of sound properties on the semantic associations of product sounds,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2010.