Over the 12 months or so Ive been very busy working on some really interesting projects that I’ve not had time to speak about until now. Last year I was approached by several Human Factors Design groups to help them with their projects. Human Factors Engineering is the study of how humans interact with systems, product and environments. It is a scientific discipline that seeks to optimise the design of these systems and products, by taking into account human capabilities, limitations and behaviours.
The various projects Ive worked on have looked at a wide range of applications. From control room alarms of various types (musical, synthesised, tones, experimental), through to alarms/music/sounds to help people sleep, wake, maintain specific sleep stages, and then perform at their best potential (in high stress and demand environments) after these instances. All of this involved high and intensive levels of research based on papers, studies and user feedback. All of the production was meticulously planned and considered. The nature of the work really demands accuracy and a scientific approach in order to hit the demands of the client and provide a useful product.
Nigel Scard was one of the Human Factors engineers from Liv Systems had this to say about it
We employed Gareth to develop several sets of audible alarm tones, to be used in environments such as railway control centres, Air Traffic Control centres, Power Plant control rooms, and other safety related operational environments. We needed the alarm tones to express differing levels of urgency, to cover different alarm priority levels from ‘Critical’ down to ‘Low Priority’ alarms. The alarm tones were also required to comply with Human Factors and Ergonomics standards relating to alarm tones for operational environments. It was also important to us that the alarm tones sounded good, in order to ensure they were not only effective but also provide a good user experience.
We were extremely pleased with the work Gareth did for us, he was very responsive to our requests and requirements regarding the criteria we needed to alarm tones to meet. His creativity and extensive experience in sound design really showed through, with the really great alarm tones he developed for us!
We would be more than happy to work with Gareth again in the future and would highly recommend his services.