It’s always good to ask if the notification really is so important that it needs to be delivered with a sound. Designers should design notifications responsibly: it should be possible to define which notifications the user wants to receive, and whether it should be an intrusive notification with a sound or not. They should always be designed as part of the whole service and part of service’s interaction design. However, notifications are not a sound design challenge. The purpose of a notification is to notify the user of an event that the user is subscribed to. There’s one “easy” sound design case for mobile phones: notification sounds. Thanks to ringtones and text message sounds we’ve got used to the idea that a mobile phone notifies us with sounds. Then, many interaction confirmations and notifications can still be communicated effectively and more subtly using appropriate sounds. Sometimes the user of a mobile phone is in a so called eyes-busy situation. There are many activities that take place in the background in a mobile phone. It may be far more effective to deliver a message through sound than doing it just visually. I like to think that mobile phones and their apps, in comparison with websites, can and should contain sounds. It contains a lot of personal data, personal settings, and it is used for communication as well as for accessing all kinds of digital services. Mobile phone is the user’s true personal computer. What is the right sound for each place? When we do know, genius sound design will appear. If the context is new, we don’t necessarily know what really works. Genius sound design appears when it's perfectly suited to its context: users, passive listeners, technology, etc. With emerging technologies we are designing sounds for new devices, situations or even environments. "Genius work appears, when it’s perfectly suited to its context" (David Byrne in 'How Music Works')
One example of this are mobile phones and their apps. Just like a game would sound empty without any sounds, services or products may appear empty if they lack sound. Sounds feed a sense – hearing – that is sometimes disregarded when developing digital products and services. Sounds can be functional, confirming, provide added value or be there just for fun or to generate a certain feeling. Roughly, functional and informative sounds serve certain purpose, aesthetic and atmospheric sounds convey feelings. In terms of their role, sounds could be divided into "functional vs. Sounds in a digital service or product can be functional, confirming, provide added value or be there just for fun. So the possibilities for sound design are greater than before.
It means that we are no longer tied to the physical properties of the product. In the digital era many sonic signals of physical origin have been replaced by electronic ones: the sounds of telephone, doorbells, school bells, cash register machines, etc. And then, more importantly, you should ask for feedback once the sound is out and loud (or quiet, depending on the use case). Being as intangible as it is, the key to successful sound design is to interview stakeholders and users beforehand in order to get an idea of the desired qualities of the sound and functions the sound should serve. It boosts and supports the experience, and ideally, it supports the brand as well.
How do you design those? Let's start by thinking how to do sound design in general. Usually sound has a supportive role, it adds something to other design aspects of a product or a service.
This post is about sound design for notifications. If you wonder what sound actually is ' Everything You Should Know About Sound' by Tim Urban provides an exceptionally good answer. However, it’s very difficult, if not impossible, to look at sound in a specific point of time. Most design methods, thinking tools, design problems and questions of usability, functionality and aesthetics are similar in sound design to other fields of design.