Should the Web be Wired for Sound?
The web has a slightly awkward relationship with audio. If youâre (un)lucky enough to remember the web in the late 1990âs, every other website played a damn awful midi track when the page loaded. It was shocking â especially on business PCs with crap sound cards.
Website sound was eventually killed off when:
- Internet Explorerâs monopoly ended. Other browsers didnât always support .WAV or .MID files so Flash became the most reliable alternative â and that posed its own set of problems.
- Developers realized that sound didnât necessarily improve their sites. The effects were trashed along with frames, marquees, blink tags, splash pages and stupid animated âpage under constructionâ GIFs.
Today, developers rarely consider sound unless theyâre creating a music or gaming website. But weâre all using cloud-based applications and sound has long been a usability feature on the desktop. Would users appreciate a quick âbongâ when a calendar event occurs, a âchirpâ when a new tweet arrives, or a âsirenâ when Internet connectivity drops at a critical point when finishing your important spreadsheet in Google Docs?
I think sound will make a major comeback on the web â possibly this year. However, for it to happen:
- There needs to be widespread adoption of the HTML5 <
audio
> tag. Few developers will consider application sound effects unless theyâre easy to implement and reliable in most browsers â including Internet Explorer. - Sound needs to be unobtrusive and aid usability. Developers should use it sparingly: the odd email âtah-daâ alert is fine, but letâs not return to the days of page-load concertos or a âclunkâ on every click.
- Web application developers should offer a sound on/off option â possibly with âoffâ being the default.
- A sound must play the instant an event occurs. Where necessary, the application should pre-cache effects so they can be played on demand. Remy Sharp has investigated this issue: see Audio Sprites â a technique for loading multiple effects in a single audio file.
- Vendors should implement intelligent sound controls within browsers. Volume controls or a âdisable soundâ option would be a good start. It could go further, e.g. inactive tabs could play muffled or lower volume effects based on how recently the page was viewed.
I admit Iâm not the best person to predict the future of sound on the web. I switch off all desktop and application effects because they quickly become irritating when youâre using a PC for 10 hours a day. But, in my experience, most users seem to like sound effects (or donât know how to disable them!)
Web application effects may even be more useful and less intrusive than desktop applications. Unlike my email client, IDE or Photoshop, I rarely keep a web app open all day.
Do you think sound will make a comeback on the web? Do you want it? Will it aid usability? Will it be abused? Please leave your comments or cast your vote on the SitePoint poll.