Usable Audio—Best Practices for
Auditory Content
Foto: aboutpixel.de © Thomas Pieruschek
December 5th 2008

About Your Speaker
• Jens Jacobsen
• Information Architekt, Usability
Consultant
• Created podcasts, websites & POIs/
games for museums
• Founder, CEO Content Crew GmbH
2

Example:
• Product activation via phone
3

Foto: aboutpixel.de © Dominik Sellmann

Audio Example
—what went wrong?

Key Feature Audio:
• Audio is linear.
• Other than text and images:
6

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INFORMATION ARCHITECTS JAPAN
ANALYTIC DESIGN AND CONSULTING Design Stations
Information Architects Inc. Japan www.informationarchitects.jp © 2007.6 V1.6
7

Key Feature Audio:
• Audio is linear.
⇒
• Overview difficult
• Short term memory needed a lot
• Rewind / fast forward awkward or even impossible
8

So:
• We need a special information architecture
for audio.
9

Use of IA for Audio?
• Radio
• Audio books
• Voice control
• Phone / hotlines
• Navigation / car assistance systems
• Podcasts
• On the Web
10

Information Architecture
11

Foundation for Audio IA…
12

User Scenarios
13
Foto: aboutpixel.de ©Svair

User Scenarios 1/3
• How will audio be used?
• Just listen: Radio
• Listen, maybe rewind: audio book
• Listen parts, skip, maybe rewind: Podcast
• Listen, talk: voice recognition
• Listen, use keys: voice recognition
• Listen interactively: Web
increasingly interactive
14

User Scenarios 2/3
• How are the surroundings?
• Headphones / phone receiver / loudspeaker
• At home
• In the office
• On the go
• How much experience do users have?
15

User Scenarios 3/3
• What do the users want?
• Entertainment
• Information
• Problem solving
increasingly goal-oriented
16

Metadata
17

Journalism
18
Foto: aboutpixel.de © Niggl

Writing to Be Heard
• Be short
• Write easy sentences
• Use present tense, name the doer
• Avoid jargon & complicated words
• Repeat, repeat, repeat
19

Answer the „Seven Ws“:
• Who?
• What?
• Where?
• When?
• How?
• Why?
• Where from?
20

Make Information Digestable
• One new information per sentence
• Provide time for information processing
• Relate to personal experience
• Instead of
The new time management solution IS EasyPlan makes it
possible to access all e-mail in order and answer them in a
way…
• Write:
You know it: you enter the office in good spirit. But turning on
your PC you find 73 unread e-mails. IS EasyPlan helps you…
21

Psychology of Learning
22
Foto: aboutpixel.de © Thorwald Hoffmann

Writing for the Brain
• Mind short-term memory
• Think of previous user experience
• Adjust reading speed
23

User Centered Design
24
Foto: © Barbara Eckholdt / Pixelio

Our Usability Study
25

Our Hypothesis:
“Audio created which follows the rules of
Audio Information Architecture is better.”
26

Our Setup
27

Text Comparison
P A The end of research
[ethereal sound]
At the end of the 19th century, At the end of the 19th century,
scientists were in agreement: scientists agreed:
All of nature's laws were known All of nature's laws were known
to man and fully understood, to man and fully understood.
every observable phenomenon Every observable phenomenon
could be explained and could be explained and
described with a formula, only a described with a formula. Only a
few minor details would be left few minor details would be left
to discover. to discover.
Not until decades later most of Not until decades later most of
them realized how wrong they them realized how wrong they
were... were... [wobbling sound] 30

Print text Audio text

General Problem: Audio on Webpage
32

38%: ”Video would be nice“

18%: ”Dificult to concentrate“

38% aborted playback

Audio is difficult—so:
• Consider using video
• Provide link for download
• Provide RSS-feed (podcast)
• Treat it as appetizer
36

What about the Audio Players?
Player 1
Player 2
37

Player 1 Player 2

Our Plans
• Produce video with same text.
• Conduct study with ~100 participants.
• Develop audio player that
• meets usability requirements
• tracks audio abort
39

1:31 5:43

Conclusion
• Create text with
Audio Information Architecure in mind
• Use a usable player
• Don‘t think anyone listens a longer audio on the
web—but maybe he/she downloads it
41

Your Turn
• For more info please visit
www.content-crew.de/audioIA.
Questions, comments, thoughts, please!