Client: Microsoft

Case Study: Audio UX & Audio Brand Development for ‘Cities Unlocked’ Navigational Aid

During the latter days of working as an in-house sound designer at Microsoft (2014 - 15), I was lead sound designer for the inspiring Cities Unlocked/Guide Dogs project. The project was later renamed to Soundscape when released as an app in early 2018.

Soundscape uses 3D sound as a navigational aid for the blind, so the audio UX was absolutely critical to the success. The user hears the sounds via a specially adapted bone-conducting headset, via their smartphone. The application uses algorithms to determine whether the user is walking in the correct direction (to a specified destination), which is then communicated via audio feedback.

I created all the UI sound design assets needed for the application, whilst forming the building blocks of the Cities Unlocked audio brand. The UI sounds needed to be first and foremost functional – they needed to communicate a specific alert in a calm and unassuming way. It’s important for the user (in this case a visually impaired person) to be able to hear their natural surroundings, whether it is traffic or other people, so the sounds needed to find a perfect balance – be distinctive/alerting enough to grab attention, whilst not conflicting/blanketing the natural environmental sound.

The most important sounds, at least in terms of the functionality of the application, were the ‘Sensory Beat’ sounds. These sounds can be heard below.

These sounds would be played on a loop, navigating the user to their pre-defined destination. All sounds were experienced in spatial audio (3D) via the stereo headset, using the HRTF algorithm that is commonly used for virtual reality/gaming applications. The sensory beat would either be ‘ON’, communicating that you are moving in the correct direction (within the parameters of the designated waypoint), or ‘OFF’, communicating that you are moving in the incorrect direction. The idea is that you would follow the 3D positioning of the ‘OFF’ sound until you are on the right course (and hear the ‘ON’ sound). Various other ‘3D’ notification sounds could interject at various points of the journey, i.e. to indicate an area of interest at a certain location, depicted by the positioning of the alert. These ‘contextual spatial’ alerts can be heard below.

There were several different sounds needed as the UI was purely audio-based - such as entering into different modes, confirmation sounds, etc. Examples have been included below.

Below are a couple of videos that explain the Soundscape application. The first is a is a TED talk given by Amos Miller back in 2015 at the time I was leading the sound design. I would need to provide all the sound within the 18 minute talk, which looks at some of the early inspiration behind the work. The second video provides a more up to date summary (from 2018) of what Soundscape is. Amos Miller again features, alongside Mr Microsoft himself, Satya Nadella. Some of the sounds I created, including the key ‘Sensory Beat’ sounds, can be heard during the demo of the app.