Sounding Objects: An Overview Towards Sound Methods and Techniques to Explore Sound Within a Design Process

Sound is a neglected subject of today’s products and services. The new technologies changed the way we interact with the people, objects and the world around us, thus, designers should aim at all senses, contemplating a multi sensorial experience. In this scenario sound becomes an important aspect to be considered during the project phase in a design process. Sound becomes part of the product identity and expression, the way the product talks to us. To foster this scenario designers should be aware of the possibilities and attributes of sound and how to explore them in a creative way. In this short paper we investigated published articles, workshops and publications to collect sound methods and techniques to be used into a design process. As a result, we proposed twenty essential sound methods that could be applied in a design thinking context. This is an ongoing research, part of a thesis experiment, since further methods and refinement could be added in the future.