Sound Affects: Audio Skeuomorphs in iOS 7

While iOS 7's visual interface has been stripped of realism and metaphor, skeuomorphs live on in the sound effects the system employs.

From the sound of a padlock swinging open as you unlock the device to the shutter release effect when you take a picture, iOS 7 is littered with audio skeuomorphs. Type out an email on your iDevice and it will make the tap-tap of fingers typing on a keyboard, and when you hit send you’ll hear a whoosh as your email is apparently mounted on a rocket and launched into the internet. Then when your friend calls you back about that email you might hear the shrill ring of a bakelite Victorian telephone.

Whilst these effects are both fun and help convey what the system is doing to novice users, they jar with the crisp, purely-digital visual design of iOS 7. In a world of fake leather stitching and green card-table felt these sound effects felt at home, but translated to the sparse, modern landscape of iOS 7 they feel old fashioned and even tacky.

It will be interesting to see how Apple deals with this as iOS 7 develops. In keeping with the philosophy of minimalism and deference to the user’s content, perhaps iOS will become silent, only producing sound when music or video is played. Or perhaps Apple will develop a whole new sound library, composing Kraftwerk-esque beeps and tones to provide auditory feedback.