Back to the future of Design — Temple Bells to SUVs
Thoughts can strike you at most unlikely times; this time it was the sound of bell that triggered my chain of thoughts. Intrigued by the presence of bells in temple, wanted to dig deeper to understand its origins and how the system of information sharing was designed centuries ago. After some brief reading and tracing them back to Egyptians & Roman times; the inquistivness became an obsession to know more.
WHY?
On a very high level why was it required? Listing some simple rationales that I could conjure of,
- Make people aware of time (when household clocks/watches were non-existent or luxury)
- Inform people that a certain activity is about to start (Awareness/Attention seeking)
- Alert people in the village of some calamity/upcoming danger
The above parameters definitely fits the bill, hope you would agree with me. What more could they do if we surpass what meets our eyes (or in this case ear 🤣).
Psychological Reasons
The large bells crafted with workmenship create sound that echoes for minimum of 7 seconds (Miller’s Magical Number); which synchronous the Left & Right brain and helps a person to enhancing the concentration (by emptying the thoughts); there by preparing the devotees for the next step (it could be for spirutual reasons in this case). What is the next step is something we need to define in our context. Can we?
Concurrence to Digital Usage
The iPhone SoS alert is a real pain — every single time the phone is kept in a bag while travelling in Indian roads (you know what I mean) it triggers the SoS; to an extent that now people have started ignoring my SOS literally and am forced to switch the feature off to avoid further embarrassment of them calling me any asking “what happened & where are you” and me cluelessly answering them.
Am not aware that the SoS has been triggered in my mobile until someone calls me. A mere red symbol on the top right corner highlights that and it is triggered; which is as useless as possible when you are riding a bike and the phone is inside a bag/pouch.
On the other end, the SMS that being sent to my emergency contacts is not even doing the job of alerting them immediately. With number of junk SMS that sits in your mobile we almost ignore the SMS nowadays. Sometimes they see it the next day! Well, had I been kidnapped at night and the SMS went to my contacts, I could be dead by the time they see the SMS next morning 😆
But an alert sound could be better way of communicating SoS. I haven’t really found an alternative to it, but yeah am still trying to figure out how better could have this been designed to make it fool proof and at the same time reach our loved once when in real danger?
With that note let’s see what are the parameters to ponder for analysis of auditory notifications? Having worked for Alerts and Notification for high-end car segments we were able to understand in detail how people perceive alerts different based on their Socio-Economic factors. (A chauffeur vs Self Driving millionaire do differ in their way of perceiving info).
- Purpose
- Environment
- Accessibility
- Urgency Level
- Emotional Response
- Cultural Impact
- Impending Action
- Result (desirable/adverse)
List the scenarios that involve notification, analyze these parameters before using alerts based on the details which would require auditory notification.
- Define the purpose of the notification
- Understand the environment the users would be using the application
- Who are the users and how accessible is it to them based on their environment?
- Analyse the levels of urgency in each case [Low — Inform | Medium — Notify | High — Alert]
- What kind of emotional response would that sound evoke for that user segment?
- Are there and cultural/regional impact that we need to understand? Would the same notification be implied differently in different geographical regions based on their perceived knowledge?
- Was the alert able to evoke the right action from the users?
- Was it able to achieve the desirable results? Does it require some tweaking?
That being said, there are few alerts which are well designed and customized to suit the occasion of usage. The clicking sound of car opening for Uber, as soon as your ride arrives; does a decent job of grabbing your attention & evoking the right action. These are tiny details in designing that may or may not have immediate measurable impact; but yet investing time in understanding your audience & tailoring the outcome accordingly leaves a mark. But YES, a good design demands time and it pays off.
