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What's the UX reason to use a chime rather than an (customisable) announcement? I suppose I'd get used to the alarms if I used the car but all of them on a pag

What's the UX reason to use a chime rather than an (customisable) announcement? I suppose I'd get used to the alarms if I used the car but all of them on a page is confusing.

bagels 3y ago
Text would take a lot longer to convey information than a short chime. You would also have to localize all the sounds.
- DrSAR 3y ago
  "TERRAIN, TERRAIN! whoop whoop PULL UP!" -- the makers of the Terrain Avoidance and Warning System (TAWS) thought that this extra information was useful. Maybe the timing is different or maybe it's just cultural.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - tavavex 3y ago
    Yeah, it's both an earlier development, and it also doesn't really apply fully. In almost all modern aircraft, aural alerts are only used for very dangerous situations that require immediate pilot action. However, there are still a lot of "abstract" sounds used, either where it occurs often (like autopilot disconnect) or where spelling it out isn't needed (like a generic warning or caution tone to bring attention to the display that describes the error)
  - rootusrootus 3y ago
    No localization necessary on that one, all commercial pilots are required to speak English.
subroutine 3y ago
Confirmation tones are used to convey that the car registered a deliberate user action (e.g. a button press). For example whenever you press the unlock button on your key fob, it would quickly become annoying if the car announced "The car is now locked". In the case of confirmation, you know what the tone is signaling, because you just performed the action to create the tone (and don't need a lecture about it). Mildly abrasive 'alert' tones are preferred for warnings over announcements because alerts typically require immediate action. You could follow the alert tone by an announcement but this is typically unnecessary because the the first time you hear it, the tone will be seared into your memory (e.g. you are messing with the radio and suddenly hear the lane departure warning or forward collision warning). And you really don't need to distinguish between them - they all basically mean "immediately allocate all cognitive resources towards driving this death machine safely".
- dTP90pN 3y ago
  This does not account for inattentional deafness, which is why there ought to be sense-redundant alerts, at least for alerts requiring immediate action.
- rootusrootus 3y ago
  > it would quickly become annoying if the car announced "The car is now locked" Ha, I'm having flashbacks to my neighbor's old Chrysler New Yorker (from the K car era). "The door is ajar, the door is ajar." And couldn't just say it was open, that doesn't sound fancy enough. > the first time you hear it, the tone will be seared into your memory Indeed, the joke is that the Tesla alert tone causes PTSD after you hear it the first time.
eternauta3k 3y ago
Speech gets annoying, like webex's "Muted" / "Unmuted" / "Lower microphone to unmute"

What's the UX reason to use a chime rather than an (customisable) announcement? I suppose I'd get used to the alarms if I used the car but all of them on a page is confusing.

bagels 3y ago

Text would take a lot longer to convey information than a short chime. You would also have to localize all the sounds.

DrSAR 3y ago
"TERRAIN, TERRAIN! whoop whoop PULL UP!" -- the makers of the Terrain Avoidance and Warning System (TAWS) thought that this extra information was useful. Maybe the timing is different or maybe it's just cultural.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- tavavex 3y ago
  Yeah, it's both an earlier development, and it also doesn't really apply fully. In almost all modern aircraft, aural alerts are only used for very dangerous situations that require immediate pilot action. However, there are still a lot of "abstract" sounds used, either where it occurs often (like autopilot disconnect) or where spelling it out isn't needed (like a generic warning or caution tone to bring attention to the display that describes the error)
- rootusrootus 3y ago
  No localization necessary on that one, all commercial pilots are required to speak English.

subroutine 3y ago

Confirmation tones are used to convey that the car registered a deliberate user action (e.g. a button press). For example whenever you press the unlock button on your key fob, it would quickly become annoying if the car announced "The car is now locked". In the case of confirmation, you know what the tone is signaling, because you just performed the action to create the tone (and don't need a lecture about it). Mildly abrasive 'alert' tones are preferred for warnings over announcements because alerts typically require immediate action. You could follow the alert tone by an announcement but this is typically unnecessary because the the first time you hear it, the tone will be seared into your memory (e.g. you are messing with the radio and suddenly hear the lane departure warning or forward collision warning). And you really don't need to distinguish between them - they all basically mean "immediately allocate all cognitive resources towards driving this death machine safely".

dTP90pN 3y ago
This does not account for inattentional deafness, which is why there ought to be sense-redundant alerts, at least for alerts requiring immediate action.
rootusrootus 3y ago
> it would quickly become annoying if the car announced "The car is now locked" Ha, I'm having flashbacks to my neighbor's old Chrysler New Yorker (from the K car era). "The door is ajar, the door is ajar." And couldn't just say it was open, that doesn't sound fancy enough. > the first time you hear it, the tone will be seared into your memory Indeed, the joke is that the Tesla alert tone causes PTSD after you hear it the first time.

eternauta3k 3y ago

Speech gets annoying, like webex's "Muted" / "Unmuted" / "Lower microphone to unmute"