Client: Wayfindr

Case Study: Audio UX for Wayfindr Open Standard + Audio Logo for Brand Animation

In early 2016 I had the exciting opportunity to work with Umesh Pandya and the fantastic Wayfindr project. Wayfindr is an Open Standard for indoor navigation, initially set up to support vision impaired people travelling on the London Underground. I created the sound assets required for the early development of the Standard. This included a General Notification Alert and a Journey Completed Alert – sounds that would precede a voice instruction. The sounds would be played through a wireless headset via a smartphone device. The final sounds can be heard below. They replaced the existing sounds that were based on low quality library sounds.

Functionality was obviously a key factor for the notification sounds, whilst I also needed to reflect the user-driven design principles of the Wayfindr experience. These included the following:

Functional

Confident

Humble

Modern

Friendly

The notification sounds cemented Wayfindr’s audio brand, whilst helping to form the overall brand identity. I also participated in brand development workshops, held by the agency Moving Brands. Interestingly my sounds would also be used as inspiration for the visual identity (by my experience it’s more often than not the other way around). This collaboration resulted in a Wayfindr Audio Logo, to be paired up with the new brand logo animation. I felt it was important not to create a new sound for the sake of it. Instead, the audio logo was very much part of the user experience and consisted of an amalgamation of the two notification alerts - sounds that had already been designed as a coherent pair of sounds. In the future this audio logo had the potential to be used as an accreditation sound, to inform that one has entered into a Wayfindr-supported zone.

The sounds were tested via live trials, with positive feedback from the users. A solid core audio brand and UX had been created, providing the building blocks for any future development within the Open Standard.

For a more detailed story behind the Wayfindr sounds, follow this link which takes you to a blog post I wrote for Wayfindr.

(Below) Photos from the live user testing at Old Street Station, London (June 2016)