3 Ways to implement sounds in your website’s design

There are many ways to grab your audience’s attention as they surf your website, such as pop-ups and moving graphics, but one of the best (and most challenging) is with sounds.

Unfortunately, many websites are plagued with terribly placed sounds that annoy or infuriate the user, ruining their experience. To ensure your website does not end up in a similar situation, here is how you can properly implement sounds on your website.

1. Audio cues

Not everyone has the gift of perfect vision. Many people wear glasses or contacts to read small text on the screen, which can sometimes be extremely tough. Unfortunately, this can also make it challenging for them to find what they need, such as what page to navigate to or what button to click.

The point is that tiny buttons and text make it hard for some of your users to use and navigate your website. Fortunately, sound can help solve this accessibility problem. For instance, you can create “clicking” sounds at different pitches to tell the users when they have hovered over a button or clicked. It creates a sort of feedback, letting the user know they have pointed the mouse in the right direction.

2. Notifications

Many times, a user sees an incredibly important notification too late because no sound came with it. You can easily prevent this problem on your website by alerting users to notifications with a “pop-up” sound.

In most cases, you can implement this sound in web elements like chat messages or specific notifications your users care about. You can even use it with your pop-up ads, but be careful not to go too far. Otherwise the “pings” might drive your users crazy and force them to leave your website entirely.

3. Success sounds

Sometimes, your user might be left in the dark about whether they have completed an action. For instance, they might have clicked a “buy now” button, but nothing happens. In this case, they might not know what went wrong.

While a scenario like this may be quite unlikely, it pays to implement a sort of “success” sound when they complete an action. While sending them to another page that tells them that their request has been processed can work, complementing that with a sound can drive the message. This has already been used multiple times in the game industry, where success sounds play after completing an objective, filling a person’s brain with feel-good hormones.

If you want your users to feel good after completing an action, using success sounds can be something you can do.

Conclusion

If there is one tip you need to remember, it is not to overdo it. Adding sounds to absolutely everything on your website is much worse than having a completely silent one. Getting barraged by pings and strange noises can easily annoy your visitors and prompt them to leave your site in favour of another competitor.

For that reason, do not be afraid to test your website first before going live. That way, you can fix any issues that arise and ensure a positive browsing experience for all your website visitors.

Still unsure of how to implement sounds on your website? Lemongrass Media is a website designer in the UK capable of creating the best-looking (and sounding) website for you. Contact us on 0800 690 6250 or email enquiries@lemongrassmedia.co.uk, to find out what we could do for you.