I’ve just had a deeper look at the Sonic Memory Project’s “Sonic Browser” and this time I was specifically interested in the way it was designed structurally for navigation how it encourages users to interact.
To get the obvious out of the way, I think it set up modes for contribution of sounds really well, they clearly set up a phone where people could leave messages with their ideas and reflections which were added to the collection of interviews. This created a really shared, personal and human feeling about the space.
Visually, with the sweeping lines of audio for users to catch, its really engaging. Users then move over options with the mouse in a non self-conscious way making decisions about their selection of narrative. I think at first the selection will always be a bit haphazard which is perfect for giving a self-selected overview, but then as users get used to how to navigate we become more and more attuned to what aspects we’re interested in hearing through nagivational links next to the sound line. For example, after a while, I was interested in hearing mostly about Media, 9/11 and Witnesses. When I clicked on one of these links during an sound-byte all the related soundbytes to “media” were a different colour blue and appeared on my browser.
It was at times, however, a little frustrating that I kept losing my navigation points and sound lines, and also the sound was quite sensitive to mouse-movements and you would lose your line before you were ready. I understand that this may have been deliberate in encouraging users to only listen as long as their attention lasts however, I felt I wasn’t always in control.
I also took note of the length of the sound pieces, which ranged from 30 seconds to 5 minutes which was interesting.
Finally, I think they did really well at encouraging a focussed attention through advising the use of headphones stripping down the information to mere undifferentiated lines implied a never ending amount of stories.
The creator herself spoke in the browser reflecting on the humanity of sound and her love of the medium was clear. Its a beautiful work of sound art, cleverly structured and engaging to be a part of.
