Cain, Rebecca and Jennings, P. A. (2009) Cars, urban spaces and hospitals: how automotive sound quality can inform urban and hospital soundscape design. In: Design 09: Third International Conference on Design Principles and Practices, Berlin, Germany, Feb 15-17, 2009. Published in: Proceedings of Design 09: Third International Conference on Design Principles and Practices

Abstract

Sound is often overlooked in design, but its role in creating a positive user experience can be surprisingly just as or more important as designing for the visual sense. Taking an inter-disciplinary perspective, this paper explores how research from an engineering discipline is being used to inform and inspire the design of positive user experiences in built environment design. Just as the sound of cars is important for automotive companies in helping to differentiate their vehicle brands; the soundscapes (or “audible landscapes”) of urban environments are important for providing an urban space with a unique identity. Other types of built environment, such as hospitals have further requirements for a soundscape, for example in promoting healing environments and disguising distressing sounds. In most cases, simply reducing sound levels is not enough and there are other complex factors which influence the positive perception of sound, for instance demographics and context. Techniques to allow users to evaluate automotive sound quality have advanced significantly in recent years through the development of jury evaluation methods in listening rooms and in interactive vehicle simulators. We propose that much can be learnt from automotive sound quality techniques, and applied to other domains where it is important to create a positive user experience. This paper explores how our automotive sound quality research is now informing our research into urban and hospital design. We identify the opportunities for shared learning and the areas where a different approach is needed.

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