Our Job

As web developers, we spend many hours trying to make sure that your website operates well in every browser on every sort of computer; from your iPhone to your grandma surfing on a 10 year old PC. We do this because it is important for your website to be accessible to as many people who visit it as possible. So we spend time studying the psychology of color so that people get the right emotional response to the message that you are trying to impart. We spend many hours optimizing every aspect of your page in making sure that your pages load quickly. In short, we do our best to meet (exceed) the expectations of as many people as possible for your brand. So, when you want us add music to your page we’re just doing our jobs and informing you about the research (links to research coming shortly) and telling you that doing so will be unexpected by many of your users; unexpected sounds have the potential to turn away a large portion of your visitors.

What Do YOU Expect?

When a person is visiting any given website, they expect to have to read; they can expect to see images. In many cases, users can even expect graphics to move around in the browser. But it is quite a rare situation in which someone visiting your website will expect to *hear* anything from your web page. While most computers have speakers these days, the situations in which those speakers are employed vary greatly. In many cases, it can be extremely inappropriate for a computer to suddenly start producing sounds.

• Case A) A worker in an office situation, sitting at her computer. The system has speakers, and they’re turned on, perhaps from a previously-watched work-related presentation that was appropriate at the time. But now it’s the middle of the afternoon, and everyone around her is quietly working away. Obviously, now is a good time to check out your website. She loads your page up, and suddenly, her speakers come alive, and–in the worst case scenario–she panics; she either hits the back/stop button, or closes the browser window entirely. She can’t risk disturbing the work of the people around her.

  In the best case, our visitor is quick and savvy, and knows where the mute button is. In either case, we are either loosing the visitor entirely, or likely annoying her by creating an unexpected situation that is obtrusive in her situation.

• Case B) A student in a classroom is listening to their professor lecture while taking notes on their laptop. The professor mentions something related to your web site, and so our student decides to open up his browser and get more information. As soon as he does this, his laptop starts playing music, disturbing the entire class in the process. Again, this person is either going to hit the mute button and look around apologetically, or he is going to close the window, not even looking at your information.

• Case C) A man sitting in his living room, listening to music in iTunes, casually browsing the web. This person is already listening to music that they have chosen, running independently of their web browser. In this case, he likes louder music, and so he has the volume quite high. Upon visiting your web page, his favorite guitar solo is strangely muddled with an overlapping sound. If we have just started playing your web page ‘soundtrack’ without making it obvious, it may even take this person a minute to figure out where the sound is coming from, all the while he becomes increasingly annoyed. How do you think he is going to feel when he figures out that we have taken the liberty of mashing up his musical taste with your own?

There Is a Time and a Place

When people click on a “play” button, they expect to hear something. It’s a choice. They are in control of the experience. They are (likely) ready for it. Whether it’s for a specific video, or a small, unobtrusive control that *adds* an ambient sound to your website, providing users with the *option* to hear something can often be both
a useful feature, and a wise decision to include. After all, every website empowers the user with new information, and therefore new choices. You can help direct those choices by:

1. not doing anything unexpected (especially anything potentially obtrusive)
2. reinforcing to the user that they are in control.

If sound enhances your message, put your users in control, and give them a choice.