Interaction Design with Audio: Speculating on Sound in Future Design Education

A challenge for future design education in our post-screen world is how to develop design methods, practices, and education for non-visual interaction with interactive systems. The design education approach reported in this paper combines aspects of Sonic Interaction Design, Interaction Design, and physical computing to allow designers to explore the potential role of sound in interaction, and to sensitize designers to the use of sound for interaction. The Interaction Design with Audio (IDwA) approach reported in this paper foregrounds design thinking about the possible design connections between human physical action and sonic responses by interactive systems. This paper reports on the method and representative case studies of design and learning outcomes from IDwA workshops over three years with undergraduate and postgraduate design students. These case studies indicate that the focus on exploratory design thinking with a novel design task lends itself to sensitising designers to the rich possibilities of using sound in interaction. Exemplar design features include anthropomorphism, functional interaction, narrative flow, and environmental immersion. The case studies of using IDwA illustrate that new and intriguing forms of interaction can be mocked up using simple sensors, physical computing, and a little verve. Author