Learn how audio differs from text that is read by the user. This presentation points out the main challenges in using audio to transport information. Best practices and results from tests are presented. This is useful for anyone who creates content that is to be listened to - podcasts, radio, voice control systems etc.

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

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

3. Example:
• Product activation via phone
3

4. Foto: aboutpixel.de © Dominik Sellmann

5. Audio Example
—what went wrong?

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

7. PChome Vnet EastMoney
Tom Pandora OhMyNews
Soso 9 Rules Newsvine
2.0
Technorati 2.0
Taobao 2.0 Social News
163 Sohu Sina Red State Malkin C&L Media Matters
Ch
UPS
in e
Baidu
2.0
Passport
se
an
Money
L
Huffington Post Daily Kos
in e
elm
Ed
1.5
2.5
1.5 Netscape
1.0
Statcounter
Geocities
XBox Live 1.5
Office Live Uwants QQ Yahoo Messenger
Daily Motion
Beppe Grillo
Yahoo
2.0
Music
1.5 Micro Persuasion Wallmart Delicious 1.5
MSN Microsoft
Spreeblick
Livejournal
To
1.0 2.0
Yahoo Maps
Yahoo.com.cn Metacafé T-Online
ols
Hotmail Live 1.5
1.5 Repubblica
Imagevenue 2.5 Yahoo Answers
Bild
1.0 Leo
Xanga 1.0 1.0
37 Signals
Feedburner Yahoo News Prägnanz LeMonde
Yigg
Edelman ElPais
Ne
Photolog.com
ws
2.0 MyVideo Web.de GMX Heise
1.0 1.0 2.5
Mo
1.0 2.0
Sueddeutsche
ne
2.0 Yahoo Mail Flickr Imageshack
y
1.0 Techmeme 1.0 Der Spiegel
Dell Friendster
Myspace Messenger
Scoblizer Techcrunch
OM Malik 2.0 Seth Godin PhotoBucket ZeFrank
CNet FAZ
Knowhow
2.0 2.0 2.0 1.5
1.0
Hi5 Twitter
Amazon
ls
2.0
oo
Comedy Central 2.0
Kotaku NZZ Mixi
bt
SecondLife MyBlogLog 2.0
We
Cisco Orkut Google Blogsearch
2.0 Engadget
IBM
2.0
Google Maps
2.0
2.0 2.0 1.5
FOX CNN Reddit Memeorandum Wired Slashdot.org 1.5 TheGuardian
Te
John Batelle
Murdoch News
ch
n
Sony Google Calendar Wall Street Journal Studiverzeichnis
olo
Jeff Jarvis 2.0 1.5 1.5 1.5
gy
1.0 1.0 2.0
NYTimes 1.0
So
2.0
Google.co.jp Adwords USA Today Slate
cia
Washington Post
sic
0.5 Trillian
lN
AIGA
Mu
Google Analytics 1.0 Versiontracker Design 2ch.net
etw
Google.fr Google.de Google.it Google News Doc Searls 1.5
BBC Bebo
or
Ch
1.5
IMDB.com
ks
ine
2.0 2.0 Dave Winer 2.0 Answers.com
se
Google.br.com 2.0 Youtube (Jp) 1.5
Google.uk
ks
Nicovideo
Lin
Adsense
or
Firefox 1.0
e
etw
FaceBook
1.0 2.0 Tagged DeviantArt
1.5 1.5
The Economist NetFlix
lN
1.5 2.0
News 1.5 2.0
cia
Google Checkout StumbleUpon Linkedin
So
2.0
GMail 1.5
Sourceforge
1.5 .Mac
Te
Subtraction Livejournal
Google
Federated Media
c
Meebo
hn
Daring Fireball 2.5
olo
2.0
Official Google Blog
Google Video iTunes 1.5 2.0 2.0
gy
Skype VOX Xing 1.5
Blogger 2.0 2.0 1.0
You Adobe CSS ZEN Garden Rakuten
Digg Google Docs
2.0
1.5
WebMD
y
So
Edward Tufte
ne
Social News
cia
2.0
EBay PayPal
Mo
Valleywag Guy Kawasaki 1.0 Monster
lN
Alibaba
Apple Hatena
ew
2.0 Expedia.com
s
w
ho
Tools
2.0 1.0 2.0
ow
1.0 1.0 1.0
Movies Money Go.com 1.0
Kn
Design Getty Yahoo.co.jp LiveDoor
Netvibes Wordpress
Cameron Moll
Coudal
YouTube 2.0
W3C
0.5 1.0 IXDA
Adaptive Path
Wikipedia (J)
Wikipedia (D)
2.0 Useit
A List Apart BoingBoing 2.5
ls
1.0
o
Designobserver
To
Zeldman AdBrite ICQ
w
Jeff Croft Unreal
ho
Wikipedia (Nl)
2.0 AIM
ow
2.0 2.0 1.0 1.5 Nice
Design Line Color
Kn
AOL
ing
Swissmiss Boxes&Arrows Changing
ar
Mark Boulton BaLa Music! Knowhow Wikipedia (SV)
Sh
2.5
Forecast Insecure
Music About.com
iA
2.0 2.0
Wikipedia Orange Wikipedia (Pl)
Wikipedia (Fr)
1.0 Web X.X Trouble
Storm
LastFM Skyblog
Sharing Main Sites
Ch
2.0
Terra Sapo
ine
Craigslist Tools Insiders
se
Wikipedia (It)
Fake Steve Jobs Wretch.cc
Lin
BitTorrent Torrentspy
e
Torrentz.com Wikipedia (Es) Wikipedia (Pt) Technology Movies
2.0
2.0 Knowhow Music
2.0
Sharing MegaUpload Sendspace Badongo Rapidshare Moneymaker Chinese Line
ThePirateBay News Connections
2.5 OpenID
Web Trend Map 2007/V2 Social News
Community
Political Blogs
Junctions
INFORMATION ARCHITECTS JAPAN
ANALYTIC DESIGN AND CONSULTING Design Stations
Information Architects Inc. Japan www.informationarchitects.jp © 2007.6 V1.6
7

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

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

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

11. Information Architecture
11

12. Foundation for Audio IA…
12

13. User Scenarios
13
Foto: aboutpixel.de ©Svair

14. 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

15. 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

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

17. Metadata
17

18. Journalism
18
Foto: aboutpixel.de © Niggl

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

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

21. 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

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

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

24. User Centered Design
24
Foto: © Barbara Eckholdt / Pixelio

25. Our Usability Study
25

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

27. Our Setup
27

30. 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

31. Print text Audio text

32. General Problem: Audio on Webpage
32

33. 38%: ”Video would be nice“

34. 18%: ”Dificult to concentrate“

35. 38% aborted playback

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

37. What about the Audio Players?
Player 1
Player 2
37

38. Player 1 Player 2

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

40. 1:31 5:43

41. 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

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