An HCI model for usability of sonification applications

Abstract

Sonification is a representation of data using sounds with the intention of communication and interpretation. The process and technique of converting the data into sound is called the sonification technique. One or more techniques might be required by a sonification application. However, sonification techniques are not always suitable for all kinds of data, and often custom techniques are used - where the design is tailored to the domain and nature of the data as well as the users' required tasks within the application. Therefore, it is important to assure the usability of the technique for the specific domain application being developed. This paper describes a new HCI Model for usability of sonification applications. It consists of two other models, namely the Sonification Application (SA) Model and User Interpretation Construction (UIC) Model. The SA model will be used to explain the application from the designer's point of view. The UIC Model will be used to explain what the user might perceive and understand. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.