Sonic Spreadsheet Prototype gives Data Overview

Sonification design might lead to quicker ways of scanning data than visual representation, concluded the group of researchers learning about the spreadsheet data-reading prototype in development by Tony Stockman of Queen Mary, University of London.

Stockman was making the presentation of his work at University College London in December. He followed an introduction to the field - a subset of auditory display design - with some examples of data represented by sound to give a comparison of data sets. The rise or fall in pitch between one figure and the next gave a strong sense of the shape of the material.

Stockman is pursuing this line of investigation to support blind users of spreadsheets. At present, the technology available - primarily screenreaders – cannot be used at speeds 'that an employer would pay you to do it'. While individual figure values can be gleaned by moving through the cells, there is no facility for getting an overview of the data that sighted people would gain from a quick scan. This makes the data less meaningful.

His innovation is to provide a sonic 'quick scan'. This is designed to complement the information gathered from the screenreader, so that as well as hearing numbers in cells, specifiable ranges of cells can be 'played'. Listening to the data sets taken from a range of spreadsheets, there was a feeling that many sighted people would also find more information buried in the values faster in a well-designed sonic scan than in a quick glance.

Stockman is using frequency (pitch) to distinguish values. Discussing the options, he said that sound lent itself to mapping through pitch, loudness and decay. Loudness (amplitude) had not proved as distinctive as pitch.

Intuitive mapping is key to using sound, but as yet there is no formal methodology. 'The area is up for grabs in terms of development, especially when compared to what is known about visual design,' he said. He gave the example of providing mapping for assessing weight and heat: a rise in weight might be best demonstrated by a deeper sound, whereas a rise in heat might map better with a higher sound.

However, there are certain guidelines that can be immediately deduced from the limitations of human discernment abilities. For instance, representing multiple variables with different sounds played simultaneously results in an aural pattern too complex for most people to interpret. And sound is good for showing dynamics – such as how data is changing, and when a value is an outlier - but has no corresponding absolute value that people without perfect pitch can discern.

As well as dealing with the special nature of sound, Stockman's system has a mechanism for increasing the contrast between values as the range of values narrows and other ways for ensuring usability in the face of issues that are common to all data representation.

Associated Link: Tony Stockman's publications

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