An evaluation of earcons for use in auditory human-computer interfaces

TLDR

The study evaluated earcons to determine if they effectively convey information through sound. A second experiment refined the earcons, addressing earlier weaknesses and markedly improving recognition. The experiments demonstrated that earcons outperform unstructured sounds, that musical timbres enhance effectiveness, and that refined earcons significantly improve recognition, establishing them as an effective communication method.

Abstract

An evaluation of earcons was carried out to see whether they are an effective means of communicating information in sound. An initial experiment showed that earcons were better than unstructured bursts of sound and that musical timbres were more effective than simple tones. A second experiment was then carried out which improved upon some of the weaknesses shown up in Experiment 1 to give a significant improvement in recognition. From the results of these experiments some guidelines were drawn up for use in the creation of earcons. Earcons have been shown to be an effective method for communicating information in a human-computer interface.