[IxDA Discuss] Audio feedback in HTML-based web applications

[Sean Voisen]

Hi all,

I am wondering if anyone has any thoughts/ideas/research on audible feedback
in modern web applications.  The reason I ask is that it seems to me these
days that audio tends to be largely ignored, especially with the recent push
for more DHTML/AJAX/Javascript-based applications (as opposed to
Flash-platform-based apps).  Is this partially because the technology just
doesn't readily support it? (Though Flash does, and there are workarounds
for the issue, like this one:
http://www.schillmania.com/projects/soundmanager/). Or is it because sound
is rarely done well? Or is it just seen as usually unnecessary in most
contexts and thus ignored?

I'd be interested to know because I'm the interaction designer for a new
online learning application and we're contemplating using sound (beyond the
content multimedia) to create a more engaging environment for the user.

Apologies if this has been discussed before. I'm new to the list and
searched the archives but couldn't find anything.

Thanks,
- Sean