A communal map of design in auditory display

The workshop on Recycling Auditory Displays at ICAD 2008 aimed to capture knowledge about the design of auditory displays from the participants in a manner that would be easy to understand and reuse. The participants introduced themselves by providing examples of a good and a bad sound design. These examples raised issues of culture, identity, aesthetics and context that are more usually associated with product sound design than auditory display. Based on these discussions the themes Users, Applications, Techniques, and Environments were chosen to focus the further development of ideas. A mindmapping session was used to collect over 150 entries under these themes, and more than 30 references. An additional Others theme was needed for ideas that did not fit neatly into the existing categories. The information that has been collected shows that most research in auditory display falls under the themes of Applications and Techniques. The information under the themes of Users and Others shows the overlap with related disciplines such as auditory neuroscience, product design, sound arts, semiotics, and interface design. The Environment theme raised the need for future research to include contextual issues. The outcome of the workshop has been to produce a collaborative understanding of the current state of design knowledge in the Auditory Display community, and to identify future directions for research into the design of Auditory Displays.