Abstract
Often, the only feedback that the user receives in websites is visual feedback. In comparison with visual feedback, for which there have been many empirical studies, exploration of sound has been slower, but the use of sound in websites is becoming increasingly popular due to the potential benefits it offers, and there is a great deal of general literature on how to design auditory feedback. However, scant specific guidance is available on the relationship between auditory feedback and situation. When providing unnecessary feedback, auditory feedback becomes noise that distracts the user from the task. Thus, the major purpose of this study was to investigate the role of situation in auditory feedback. In this investigation, we designed a website named UN.com that has three scenes and added different numbers of auditory feedback types. The independent variable was the different numbers of auditory feedback types. The dependent variable was the degree of helpfulness and annoyance. All of the earcons and auditory icons followed appropriate guidelines. A two-phase experiment was designed to explore the application of auditory feedback. In the first phase, the better situation in which to use auditory feedback was determined. In the second phase, a redesigned website was verified. The questionnaire consisted of three sections, the first intended to elicit demographic information from the respondents. The second section asked respondents to rate their accepted degree of auditory feedback. In the last section, we modified the system usability scale (SUS) for suitable auditory feedback to focus on the usability of auditory feedback.We found a significant correlation between auditory feedback and website usability. Some auditory feedback emerging more frequently may have a negative effect. For example, the slip sound could be annoying when the number of occurrence exceed five times. In the last phase of the experiment, we achieved the best score in SUS. The present study enhances previous studies’ finding by providing a much more detailed examination of auditory feedback. The results may provide web designers with guidelines for auditory feedback to prevent negative effects.