Here Comes No Boom! The Lack of Sound Feedback Effects on Performance and User Experience in a Gamified Image Classification Task

Title of the Paper

Here Comes No Boom! The Lack of Sound Feedback Effects on Performance and User Experience in a Gamified Image Classification Task

Paper Information

• Research Domain: Human-Computer Interaction, Gamification Design, Impact of Sound Feedback on User Experience and Task Performance
• Keywords: Sound Effects, Gamification, Feedback Sounds, User Experience, Microtasks, Emotional Experience, Task Performance

Research Background and Problem

• Research Question: Sound effects (SFX) are widely used in gamified systems to complement visual feedback, but their specific impact has not been systematically studied. The authors aim to investigate how SFX with different emotional characteristics affect users' task performance, emotional experience, immersion, and motivation.
• Significance: Gamification seeks to improve task experiences and enhance user engagement and performance through design elements such as points, badges, and leaderboards. However, if sound feedback fails to effectively enhance user experience, the allocation of design resources may need optimization. Therefore, uncovering the true role of sound feedback is crucial for gamification design and its broader application.
• Research Motivation: Although sound effects are common elements in games and gamified systems, their actual impact remains underexplored. For instance, how the emotional characteristics of sound (e.g., valence and arousal) influence user behavior is an open question. This study aims to fill this gap in the field.

Solution

• Methods and Approach:

  • Sound Design: Created 18 sound effects based on an emotional model (Circumplex Model of Affect) and categorized them into four groups: high valence-high arousal (HV-HA), low valence-high arousal (LV-HA), low valence-low arousal (LV-LA), and high valence-low arousal (HV-LA).
  • Experimental Design: Conducted two experiments:
    1. Sound Induction Study: Validated the emotional characteristics of the sound effects and selected the four most representative ones.
    2. Gamified Platform Study: Tested the impact of sound feedback on task performance and user experience in a gamified image classification task.
  • Key Techniques: Used sound design and digital audio tools such as Cubase Pro and audio synthesizers to ensure that the sound characteristics matched the target values of the emotional model. Additionally, the experiments examined the effects of arousal and valence on user experience.

• Innovations:

  • Conducted the first systematic study on the role of sound feedback in gamified systems.
  • Combined the Circumplex Model of Affect with user experiments to validate whether sound design can effectively convey intended emotions.

Research Findings

• Specific Results:

  • The sound induction study confirmed that certain short-duration sound effects could indeed elicit the intended emotional responses.
  • Experimental results showed that while different sound effects altered the emotional experience of auditory feedback (e.g., significantly influencing "stress/tension"), their impact on actual task performance was negligible.

• Key Findings and Contributions:

  • In gamified systems, sound feedback did not significantly affect task performance (e.g., completion time and scores), user enjoyment, immersion, or emotional experience.
  • The only notable finding was that low-valence sound effects increased users' stress levels, indicating they are unsuitable for positive reinforcement.

• Experiment and Evaluation Results:

  • Task Performance: The type of sound feedback did not significantly affect task completion time or scores.
  • User Experience and Motivation: Sound feedback had minimal direct impact on users' enjoyment, immersion, and motivation.
  • Emotional Experience: The emotional experiences elicited by the sounds did not influence users' emotional states during task interaction.

• Limitations and Future Directions:

  • The study was conducted in an online environment, making it impossible to standardize users' audio equipment quality and control for environmental noise.
  • The brevity or repetitiveness of sound feedback may have led participants to ignore it, reflecting the dominant role of visual feedback (visual information may overshadow auditory information).
  • Future studies should explore background music (as opposed to short sound effects), different task types, and more controlled sound feedback experiments in laboratory settings.
  • Sound feedback design should focus on its complex characteristics and investigate deeper impacts on user experience.

Conclusion

• Core Insight: The role of sound feedback in gamified systems may be overestimated, with only limited cases (e.g., low-valence sound effects) showing negative impacts on user stress. This study suggests that sound feedback design should be based on more foundational research and operational validation rather than being mandatorily integrated into gamified systems.
• Future Research Directions: The impact of sound feedback on user experience requires further exploration, particularly in scenarios lacking visual feedback or background music. Additionally, its effects on a broader range of task types should be investigated.