Timeline for Why is sound sparingly used on websites?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
23 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 16, 2020 at 10:51 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
Commonmark migration
|
|
| Dec 29, 2015 at 5:09 | comment | added | Lee Taylor | Chrome - Right click tab, mute tab. | |
| Dec 28, 2015 at 15:47 | comment | added | reirab | @Jake Not sure what the exact percentage is, but, anecdotally, I think everyone in my office (myself included) listens to music while working and visiting websites is a very frequent part of our work (we're software engineers.) Of course, in case it's not obvious, we're all using headphones. | |
| Dec 26, 2015 at 21:46 | comment | added | RemarkLima | I'm not sure if this answer really answers the question... It's all about background sounds and such like, whilst the original question is about login / logout sounds, and sounds which follow actions, so short sharp sounds. Lots of UI's have complimentary sounds so I can understand why the question as to why "Web apps" do not (given mobile apps do!) - the suggestions are mostly OK but it still doesn't address why not. | |
| Dec 24, 2015 at 17:05 | comment | added | Brian Knoblauch | Because if your website makes sounds it makes me want to climb through the Internet and punch you in the face. :-) Seriously though, websites that make noise are very annoying because I tend to open up tabs pretty rapid fire. Having to stop, locate the one making noise (thank you google for the icon), go there, make it stop, then get back on track is a serious irritation. | |
| Dec 23, 2015 at 21:00 | comment | added | Wayne Werner | I'm pretty sure the only time I would prefer a website make sound is if I were blind. But even then, ONLY if I asked for it. | |
| Dec 23, 2015 at 16:39 | comment | added | OozeMeister | @KRyan, "To be in either of these situations, and not being able to even notice that you’re missing something sounds like an awful, confusing, and frustrating experience." Agreed. It's just like using only color to differentiate features; this just kills colorblind users. Thus sound should only augment experience and not be a dependency. | |
| Dec 22, 2015 at 22:54 | comment | added | T.E.D. | Back in the late 90's, when the web was in its infancy, was the first time I saw this phrase in a signature: "If I want your website to make noise, I'll lick my finger and rub it on the monitor". With a few exceptions, the only reason its obsolete now is that we no longer use CRT's with glass screens. | |
| Dec 22, 2015 at 15:41 | comment | added | Bradley Uffner | If I wanted your website to make sounds, I would have licked my finger and rubbed it across the monitor. | |
| Dec 22, 2015 at 13:21 | comment | added | Midas | @BennySkogberg "A lot of people are listening to music while browsing the web" - is that the case? what percentage is 'a lot'? | |
| Dec 22, 2015 at 10:55 | comment | added | Benny Skogberg | @KRyan I agree on the bullit, it is now removed from the answer. Thanks | |
| Dec 22, 2015 at 10:27 | history | edited | Benny Skogberg | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Removed the “Add extra functionality” bullit
|
| Dec 22, 2015 at 10:22 | comment | added | rackandboneman | @Luca improves the situation but still changes annoying for less annoying - cacophony especially if 10 or 20 different pages from the same site are open (extremely undesirable, and depending on how the sound is played it can also cause significant computer slowdown) vs pages that load incompletely while in a background tab (undesirable too - I put them in the background tabs to do exactly that, load completely while I am focusing on other content). | |
| S Dec 22, 2015 at 1:27 | history | suggested | Anko | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Removed pointless large image, as it wasn't making any contribution to the content.
|
| Dec 22, 2015 at 0:01 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S Dec 22, 2015 at 1:27 | |||||
| Dec 21, 2015 at 21:05 | comment | added | KRyan | Also, as others have pointed out, you're missing one of the biggest legitimate uses of sound in websites: to purposefully interrupt you to alert you that something (that you were presumably waiting for or wanted to know about) has occurred on the page while you were looking at some other page. See most web-based chat programs, for examples. | |
| Dec 21, 2015 at 20:48 | comment | added | KRyan | The “Add extra functionality” bullet is, as written, a terrible suggestion, because it suggests that sounds would be adding information not otherwise indicated. I very, very often browse with my computer muted, and then there are people who always do everything on mute (i.e. the deaf). To be in either of these situations, and not being able to even notice that you’re missing something sounds like an awful, confusing, and frustrating experience. Sounds that complement visual cues might be a decent idea, but any kind of augmentation to those visual cues is very problematic. | |
| Dec 21, 2015 at 20:29 | comment | added | Luca Steeb | Also you shouldn't play sound if the user is currently not active in the current tab (for achieving this, check this question: stackoverflow.com/questions/1060008/…) | |
| Dec 21, 2015 at 18:36 | comment | added | Dan Lyons | Those icons are a god-send. I reflexively close tabs with unexpected speaker icons. | |
| Dec 21, 2015 at 15:03 | comment | added | John Deters | @ROAL, Chrome and Firefox added that icon to help users deal with this exact problem. This should help underscore the idea that many (most) users detest all audio on web sites. At the very least, any site's audio should be opt-in. | |
| Dec 21, 2015 at 14:48 | comment | added | ROAL | Just a note about: "You don’t know where it’s coming from but you want it to stop immediately" - I'm not sure about others, but Chrome and Firefox show a loudspeaker icon over any tab that is playing some sound, Firefox even allows to mute that single tab by clicking on the icon (not sure if Chrome allows this too). Still, it would be annoying at the very least. | |
| Dec 21, 2015 at 11:53 | history | edited | Benny Skogberg | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
extended explaination
|
| Dec 21, 2015 at 8:02 | history | answered | Benny Skogberg | CC BY-SA 3.0 |