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声音

Sound

目录 1 这样的用户界面是否正确？ 2 Design concepts 2.1 Inappropriate use of sound 2.2 Make sound supplemental 2.3 Desirable characteristics of sound 2.4 Characteristics of Windows Vista sounds 2.5 Designing your own sounds 3 Usage patterns 4 Guidelines 4.1 Usage 4.2 Playback 4.3 Sound selection 4.4 Windows system sounds 4.5 Sound design 4.6 Mixing 4.7 Windows integration 4.8 DirectSound programming issues 5 Text

“声音”是用户体验的音频元素。如果使用恰当，声音可以成为与用户建立非语言甚至是情感关系沟通的有效形式。声音可以单独使用，也可以作为视觉 UI 的补充。例如，给通知添加声音效果能够使其更容易被注意到，尤其是在事件发生时用户并没有看着屏幕的情况。

在“声音”控制面板项的“声音”选项卡中，用户能够修改系统声音设置。

本文涵盖了在程序中对声音的使用，包括用于对事件及用户操作的响应，以及将程序的声音控制集成至 Windows 中。此处并不涉及音乐或语音的使用。

注：与通知及品牌宣传相关的设计规范请参考各自相应的章节。

这样的用户界面是否正确？

考虑以下问题，以判断是否应当使用声音：

• 使用声音是否会带来明显的好处？因为声音使用不当很容易得不偿失，所以仅在有明显优势的时候使用声音。
• 声音的使用是否恰当？声音是否用于那些值得关注的事情上？如果本应有的声音突然消失，用户会感到奇怪吗？把精力集中在那些能够提示用户的、有可能改变他们行为的、或是能够提供有用反馈的声音。
• 声音的使用是否会打扰用户？声音是否太频繁、太响或者觉得刺耳？用户是否会因为你对声音的使用而调低系统或你程序的音量？
• 是否将声音用作主要的沟通方式？很多时候，比如用户存在某种程度的听力损伤时，声音不应被用作主要的沟通手段。声音作为其他沟通手段（如文字或图像）的补充更为有效。
• 主要目标用户是否是 IT 专业人员？声音对于那些面向 IT 专业人员的任务来说通常没有用处，因为许多任务是无人值守状态下运行的。而且，声音也不适合用于大规模作业——想像一下同时运行数百个任务而每个任务成功或失败时都会发出声音。

Design concepts

Typically sound achieves any or all of the following purposes:

• Notification. Sound can be associated with specific events. For example, a "new mail" sound tells users when mail arrives without disrupting their current task.
• Feedback. Sound can provide feedback for specific user actions. For example, a subtle sound that plays when you release the slider on the volume control provides feedback about the level of the current setting.
• Branding. Sound can be associated with specific content to brand your product, application, or service. Windows Vista® uses sound in this way for the startup of the operating system.
• Entertainment. Sound is commonly used to enhance entertainment products and to make any product more engaging. For example, most games, training applications, and consumer products use sound to entertain users and enhance their experience.

Certain sounds can fulfill several of these purposes at once. The Windows Vista Startup sound, for example, indicates that the startup process has completed and the desktop is ready for use. It also provides a powerful form of product branding and even momentarily engages users.

Sounds that fulfill none of these purposes should likely be eliminated.

Inappropriate use of sound

Despite the benefits of sound, appropriate use of sound requires significant restraint—to do otherwise can make a program annoying and distracting. Users will turn off their sound completely if they become annoyed by frequent, repetitive, jarring, disrupting, poorly designed sounds; in part this is because by its very nature, sound demands attention and is hard to ignore. For tips on finding a reasonable balance, see the Sound design guidelines.

Because the drawbacks of using sound can easily outweigh the benefits, use sound only when there is a clear advantage. When in doubt, don't use sound.

Make sound supplemental

Even if the sound is used appropriately, there are many situations where sound might not be effective for all users:

• Some users may work in a noisy environment where the sounds cannot be heard.
• Some users may work in a quiet environment that requires sound to be turned off or set at a low volume.
• Some users may have hearing impairments or loss.
• The computer may not have speakers.

For these reasons, sound used for notifications and feedback should never be the only method of communication, but rather should supplement visual or textual cues.

Desirable characteristics of sound

In general, sounds should be:

• mid to high frequency (600 Hertz [Hz] to 2 kilohertz [kHz]).
• short (less than one second).
• soft or moderate in volume.
• meaningful.
• pleasant, not alarming or jarring.
• non-verbal.
• non-repetitive.

With sound, less is more. The ideal sound effect is one that users barely notice, but they would miss if it were absent.

A common misconception is that sounds for critical events need to be loud and jarring to get the user's attention. This isn't true, because sound is really meant to be a supplemental means of communication. In the case of a critical error message, its presentation (perhaps in a modal dialog box), its icon (an error icon), and its text and tone all combine to communicate the nature of the error. An effective error sound can be slightly louder than the typical Windows sound, but need not be significantly louder.

Characteristics of Windows Vista sounds

Beyond this general call for minimalism, the Windows Vista sound aesthetic uses light, pure tones, and glassy and airy sounds, with a soft fade-in and fade-out (soft "edges") to prevent abrupt, jarring, percussive effects. They are designed to feel subtle, gentle, and consonant. Windows Vista sounds use echo, reverb, and equalization to attain a natural, ambient feel.

The default sound scheme for Windows Vista doesn't generally use instrumental or recognizable everyday sounds that are overly specific or musical. Examples of sounds it avoids are musical instruments such as pianos or percussion instruments, animal sounds, environmental noises, speech, voices, movie-like sound effects, or other sounds of humans. Also, Windows Vista sounds are not meant to be perceived as music (that is, as long, multi-note melodies). This makes Windows Vista sounds functionally distinct from other types of sounds.

Because the Windows Vista sounds were professionally designed to have the desirable characteristics and appeal to a broad audience, consider using these built-in Windows sounds whenever appropriate.

Designing your own sounds

If you must create your own sounds, design them to have the previously described characteristics. Strive to make them complement their associated tasks or events.

Understand that creating original sounds is difficult to do well—especially for sounds intended for a broad audience. Sound can be a polarizing design element. For every user who loves a sound, there will be many who dislike it.

Design the sounds for your program as a group to feel like they are related variations on a theme. Your program's auditory experience should be coordinated with its visual experience. Also, the "tone" of the sounds should be coordinated with the tone of the text. Consider how text with a pleasant, natural tone can be undermined when accompanied by harsh, alarming sounds.

If you do only four things...

1. Use sound with restraint—make sure there is a clear overall user benefit. When in doubt, don't use sound.
2. Use the built-in Windows sounds whenever appropriate.
3. If you design your own sounds, make sure they have the desirable sound characteristics and as a whole feel like variations on a theme.
4. Don't assume that sounds need to be loud and jarring to get the user's attention.

Usage patterns

Sounds have several usage patterns:

Action completion Sonically notifies users when a long-running, user initiated action completes successfully.	In this example, the dialog box plays a sound to notify users that the download has completed.
Action failure Sonically notifies users when a long-running, user initiated action fails.	In this example, Windows plays a sound to notify users that the backup operation has failed.
Important system event Sonically alerts users of important system events or status that require immediate attention.	In this example, users are alerted that their low battery requires immediate attention.
FYI Sonically notifies users of potentially useful, relevant information.	Because this information usually doesn't require immediate attention, an FYI sound provides subtle feedback without breaking the user's flow. In this example, a sound plays when a contact signs in to an instant messaging service.
Sound effect Sonically provides feedback to user interactions.	Provides real-world or styled sound feedback that is appropriate for the interaction. Sound effects often sound as though the user is manipulating a real-world, physical object. Sometimes referred to as Foley. In this example, the minimize window sound effect sounds like a real-world object is being reduced in size.
Branding sounds A sound provided to enhance the user experience though emotional impact and, as a side effect, promote the product brand.	Branding sounds are best when synchronized to visual events, especially UI transitions such as the display of a program window. True sound brands indicate the source of goods, similar to a trademarked word or logo, and are relatively uncommon. In this example, Windows startup is a branded transitional experience.

Guidelines

Usage

• Use sound with restraint—make sure there is a clear overall user benefit. Focus on sounds that keep users informed, are likely to change their behavior, or provide useful feedback. When in doubt, don't use sound.
• Select the sound and its characteristics based on how it is being used. For a description of each usage pattern, see the table in the previous section.
• For notifications and feedback, don't use sound as the only method of communication. Rather, use sound as a supplemental method to reinforce visual or textual cues. Doing so ensures that users can see the information if they can't hear the sound.
• Don't play loud or harsh sounds frequently. Doing so is unnecessary and results in a poor user experience. The more often a sound is played, the less obtrusive it should be. Sounds don't have to be loud or harsh to attract attention.
• Don't beep. Beeping isn't appropriate for modern programs. Beeps can't have specific meanings assigned to them, and users can't control them.
  • Exception: Critical system functions may beep to alert users of situations that they must attend to immediately, such as critically low battery power.

Playback

• Don't repeat a sound more than two times consecutively.
• For a consecutive sequence of related sound events, play a sound only on the first event. Avoid using multiple sounds because they may collide with each other or otherwise result in an unpleasant user experience.

Sound selection

• Choose pleasant sounds. Don't use unpleasant, alarming sounds, such as buzzing, crashing, and breaking.
• Use sounds that are short (less than one second).
• Use sounds that are roughly the same volume as the typical Windows sound. Users dislike having to turn the volume down when starting a computer or a program, especially in public environments such as meetings and presentations. The Microsoft® Windows® sound files are located in the Media folder within the Windows folder.
• Don't choose sounds that require localization. You can achieve this by using sounds that don't use speech or have culturally-dependent meanings or connotations.

Windows system sounds

• Use the built-in Windows system sounds whenever appropriate.
• Choose to use system sounds based on their associated meaning, not just on the sound itself. System sounds must be used consistently.

Sound design

When creating your own sounds:

• Create sounds with the desirable sound characteristics.
• Compose sounds with mostly mid-range to high frequencies (600 Hz to 2 kHz). Don't use low frequencies because they travel farther, are harder to locate, and can be alarming.
• Set the relative amplitude of normal sounds to the level of the typical Windows sound. The Windows Vista sounds have been appropriately leveled for home and work environments. Using different levels for your sounds will force users to make volume adjustments.
  • Set important sounds to be slightly louder. Such sounds include action completions, action failures, and important system events.
  • Set frequently occurring sounds to be slightly softer. These include FYIs, branding sounds, and sound effects.
• Choose sounds consistent with the meaning of the Windows Vista sounds. To create a custom version of a Windows Vista sound, preserve the same pitch and interval, but change the orchestration or timbre. Don't assign different meanings to sounds with similar pitches and intervals as Windows Vista sounds.
• Design the sounds for your program to feel like they are related variations on a theme. Your program's auditory experience should be coordinated with its visual experience.
• Sounds must be in .wav file format. The 16-bit, 44.1 kHz stereo uncompressed pulse code modulation (PCM) format is recommended. If file size is important, use compressed or monaural (mono) formats, but be aware that there is an easily discernable quality loss that could reflect badly on your application.

Mixing

• Don't have volume or mute controls in your program. Instead, let users control relative volume settings among applications with the Windows Vista volume mixer. If your program has a volume control, there will be multiple places where users adjust their settings, which may lead to confusion.

The Windows Vista volume mixer allows users to control the main volume setting as well as the volume for each program that is currently playing audio.

• Exception: If the primary purpose if your program is audio or video playback or creation, it may be useful to have a volume control in the program. Use a slider control for this purpose and provide immediate feedback when the user changes the volume.

Windows integration

• Register your program's sounds in the Windows Sounds registry. Doing so allows the Windows Vista volume mixer to add a slider for your program.
• Register your program's custom sound events. Doing so allows the Windows Sound control panel item to display them. Create the following key for each custom sound event: HKEY_CURRENT_USER | AppEvents | Event Labels | EventName = Event Name.
• Don't hardwire the sounds for your program's sound events. Instead, specify the sounds to be played using registry entries. Doing so allows users to customize the sound events through the Sound control panel item.
  • Exception: You can choose to hardwire sounds used for branding.
• Don't provide a way for users to configure sounds within your program's options. Rather, use the Windows Sounds control panel item for this purpose.
• Consider not assigning sounds to frequently occurring events by default. Don't require users to configure their way out of an annoying initial experience.

DirectSound programming issues

• For DirectSound programs that have their own volume control, set the program volume to 100 percent by default. Doing so maximizes the dynamic range of your audio.
• Don't lock out other sound events by running your program in exclusive mode. Doing so can prevent other programs from working correctly. For example, using exclusive mode prevents a computer from being used as a telephony device.

Text

• Don't use the phrase sound adapter. Use sound card instead.
• Use device to refer generically to speakers, headphones, and microphones.
• Use controller to refer to audio hardware that controls devices, such as sound cards and chipsets.
• Use the phrase sound scheme to describe a collection of sounds for common program events, such as logging on or receiving new e-mail. Use the phrase desktop theme to describe a collection of visual elements and sounds for your computer desktop.
• Use the term audio to refer broadly to speech, music, and sounds. Use the term sound to refer more narrowly to the program and Windows sounds described in this article.