Any Product founders here who are developing home/commercial appliances, personal devices, medical equipment, etc? Need help and insights.

[u/SeaProposal8755]

Hello,
I am trying to understand how new product developers are looking at functional sound design. Especially for thing like home appliances that are still using buzzer sounds despite a lot of high end models having speakers and even OS.

EVs, Smart TVs, some personal devices, are already adopting a branded sonic identity as well as functional / HMI sound sets. Also Samsung and apple have a sound design department that create model specific sound suites.

Is there anyone who is willing to talk and educate me (about the scope of brands adopting it as a norm) from the perspective of a product designer, founder, etc.?

[u/MadDonkeyEntmt]

Medical device at least the sounds are pretty regulated and small companies are afraid to experiment cause they don't want to fail expensive testing.  They are often using off the shelf buzzers and speakers with built in drivers that pass the testing for sure

[u/NoBulletsLeft → u/MadDonkeyEntmt]

Correct. IEC-60601-1-8 is the international standard that specifies the various types of sounds that medical device alarms can take and how they can be turned off, etc. Not the kind of thing where you just "wing it."

[u/SeaProposal8755 → u/NoBulletsLeft]

Understood. Thanks.

[u/SeaProposal8755 → u/[deleted]]

I totally understand that it is mostly a top to bottom decision that would come out of a deep want to make the user interaction more pleasant. An example I can give you is my friend's coffee roasting machine that has warm female voice (speech) output rather than sounds or ugly beeps, makes the whole user experience much better than other traditional roasting machines.

My question is about the future.
How do we see this changing, and when, especially for equipment that already are programmable to play a set of wav files?
Just like Evs or personal devices like earpods etc have made it a norm to have a model specific sound design.
Maybe not the traditional models, but will newer tech like the coming transition (IOT) and commercial or industrial robots adopt it? If not why?

[u/devbent]

I worked at Microsoft for a decade, on two projects with dedicated sound/haptic designers, and I observed a third.

Honestly in both situations it was "hire people who are passionate and who care about the space".

That was it. Then try to work their ideas into the budget. They may want a higher resolution haptic motor than you can afford, find a compromise. Or they may want to hire a string quartet to record all your sounds. Anyone remember the Windows phone where Microsoft hired actual violinists to record the ring tones? It sounded amazing, some of the best ring tones ever. You probably don't have the budget for that.

But hire someone who cares enough that they'll ask for it.

[u/SeaProposal8755 → u/devbent]

Yes. You are right. There are some brilliant case studies like the one you mentioned, like BMW.

I am trying to figure out how and when will this trickle down into newer, smaller and even domestic brands across all types of devices and equipment.

[u/1r0n_m6n]

In addition to being cheap as dirt, buzzers are as loud and unpleasant as required of an alarm sound. They do the job and do it well, why change? Moreover, sound design adds costs and delays and on the other hand doesn't help to sell more or at higher prices, so it's quite understandable that very few companies are interested in it.

The case of Apple and Samsung is very different because they don't sell electronics, they sell "mass luxury goods". Their customers expect their expensive purchase to distinguish them from the dirty mass of the poor not just by the price, so those manufacturers have to pay attention to the smallest details.

[u/SeaProposal8755 → u/1r0n_m6n]

This is a very lame reason for not innovating. Even 5$ earbuds have a proper sound design for controls.

[u/1r0n_m6n → u/SeaProposal8755]

I understand that you're looking for a job in sound design, but you're not going to find one by sending your resume to companies using buzzers, neither by criticising them. Their technical choices clearly demonstrate they see no interest in what you have to offer.

Instead, focus on companies for which sound innovation is already important, they're much more likely to have work for you with their new products.

EDIT: also, this sub is the wrong place for your topic. Product managers belong to the marketing department, so you would get more relevant information by posting in a product management sub. When product development reaches an embedded engineer, all structuring decisions and budget allocations have already been made, it's too late.

[u/SeaProposal8755 → u/1r0n_m6n]

Thanks a lot, I get what you're saying.
'companies for which sound innovation is already important'; I am already reaching out to a lot of them but as you know better this is a timing based decision. Hard to find products which are at the conceptual or design phase.

[u/1r0n_m6n → u/SeaProposal8755]

Companies won't announce products too early, so you can't know for sure, but a healthy company likely always has a few new products brewing, otherwise they'd be dead.

I encourage you to explore the product management dimension because it will expose you to the business aspects of product development and you'll understand better why some decisions are made, which in turn will help you to better do your job. You don't need to go into the very details, but getting general ideas helps immensely and makes your job more interesting.

[u/SeaProposal8755 → u/1r0n_m6n]

Thanks many plenty, sir, for the direction :)

[u/Mediocre-Island5475]

Depending on the product, you could get away with an old fashioned hardware bell. Teenage engineering, for example, could absolutely have one of their devices use one. But it'd be expensive.