Website Sound Design Guidelines
Guidelines:
Consistent Sounds
Action Sounds
Short Sounds
Inappropriate Sounds
Unauthorized Sounds
Text Transcripts
Keep sounds consistent:
- Sounds should be consistent with the content and tone of
the website.
- You probably should not include music unless you are
working on a music site.
Rationale:
- Sounds should add to the content of the website rather
than detract from it.
Use appropriate sounds to signify user actions.
- Be careful with the sounds (if any) chosen to signify
user actions such as mouse clicks or mouse overs such as when
the cursor moves over a graphic link.
- Make sure that the sounds are not annoying or overly
loud.
Rationale:
- Such sounds can get quite annoying the tenth time the
user hears them.
Keep sound files short:
- Unless the sound is a primary downloadable content,
sounds should only play for a short duration.
- Do not use endlessly looping sounds or background
music.
- Provide the user with a way to terminate long music
files.
Rationale:
- Long playing background sounds are annoying.
- Background music gets old fast and draws attention away
from the real content of the webpage.
- Short music clips download faster.
Use appropriate sound files:
- Do not use sound files that are inappropriate to the
content of the website.
- Do not use sound files that are inconsistent with the
digital brand of the website.
- Do not use sound files that are offensive, especially to
the target audiences or customer organization.
- Do not use sound files that are inappropriately
cutsey.
Rationale:
- Such use is unprofessional.
- Such use is detrimental to the objectives of almost all
websites.
Do not use unauthorized or stolen sound files.
Rationale:
- Almost all sound files on the Internet are
copyrighted.
- Unauthorized use of copyrighted sound files is
illegal.
- Such usage is unprofessional.
- Such usage is not worth the risk in terms of legal and
branding problems.
Provide a text transcript for all audio files with
significant verbal content.
Rationale:
- This makes the website more accessible, especially to
deaf persons or people working in a noisy environment (e.g.,
factory floor, cyber cafe).