MySpace apart, it isn’t often I visit a website with some kind of annoying music playing in the background or to that matter any sounds at all! Using sounds on webpages has almost become an unspoken rule.

Recently, while working on a desktop application, I have become more aware of alert sounds and the roll they play in applications. Not just baked in to annoy the user, they can be incredibly helpful. Think about how many subtle sounds there are other than those very frustrating popup alerts. to name a few… 

- The ‘pop’ of a new incoming iChat message
- The ‘ding’ of a new track imported into iTunes
- The ‘woosh’ of an email being sent in Mac ‘Mail’

(apologies to any Windows users, like most designers, I use a mac!)

There are some very clever subtle sounds being utilised on the iPhone as well as other mobile devices that help to confirm actions that have been carried out when notification space is at a premium.

So why then, if these sounds are so important offline are we not seeing them built-in to our online applications? One suggestion is that, its not currently in anyones job description and so they just simply don’t get thought about. I would like to suggest this is a designers job and nervously challenge other creative types to investigate sounds online, without making my ears bleed!

Recently I had to find a few sounds to use and if you don’t have your own studio at hand I can highly recommend the SoundRangers.