🔊Sound design in learning experiences deserves more attention. It’s usually completely absent from online learning interactions.
“Silence is golden” is a good mantra for sound design. Deciding when to use sound is a delicate balance as explained in this video.
***Of course we shouldn’t rely exclusively on audio to convey information and should provide transcripts and audio descriptions for spoken words and visuals*** but it’s just surprising the amount of online learning interactions that completely ignore a major sensory modality.
This is such a missed opportunity!
Here’s what I’ve noticed:
🙅♂️ Audio is often taken for granted, neglected, and included as an after thought if it is included at all.
💩 Most online learning interactions avoid sound entirely with the exception of narration.
🧟 Narration and videos are recorded by inexperienced practitioners with terrible audio all the time, and every time I hear them, a little part of me dies.
WHY?
💵 Perhaps budgets or time do not allow for it.
🎛️ Perhaps not enough practitioners are confident in their ability to use sound design effectively for learning.
😱 Perhaps it is avoided and seen by some as a *gasp* “seductive detail” (which it obviously can be).
Whatever your excuse, it’s worth rethinking how you design sound for you experiences, and think critically about why you are excluding it. Thoughtful sound design can provide memorable feedback, it can make an interaction seem more natural or immersive, and it can give you another tool for reinforcing your message.
How something looks, feels, and sounds together are major pillars of experience, and this is going to shape how something is learned or engaged with.
