CAFÉ Appliances Sound

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CAFÉ Appliances UX Sound Design

Role: UX Sound Designer

Duration: 6 month

Team: Product Design team,

New sound for the new look

GE Appliances has refreshed the look of the CAFE Appliances. A new UX and branding sound is designed to match the fresh look of the user interface.

Outcome

A new UX sound is designed with broader communication to increase the user experience when interacting with physical and digital products while being able to relate the sound to the visual.

Role: UX Sound Designer

Duration: 6 months

Team: Product Design team,

Responsibility

Experimenting with different sound, evaluating with users, testing and engineering on the appliances speaker unit.

Product Overview

Branding sounds

The theme of CAFÉ Appliances, the sound of style and class.

Welcome

Power off

Wifi connect

Designed for those who value function and style.

Inspired by glass, warm and natural.

UX sounds

A balanced match between clear feedback and brand on every touch.

Start

Critical Error

Touch

Start

Critical Error

Touch

Cancel

Unavailable

Cancel

Unavailable

Elegant cues, effortless guidance.

Timer sounds

CAFE’s Timer Family Sounds provide clear, gentle cues, guiding you through each cooking stage with a touch of elegance.

Cook Timer

Reminder

1 minute remaining

Kitchen timer

Design Process

Requirement

Reimagine sound for the new CAFÉ Appliances UI, match with the newly updated Profile Appliances sound

Opportunity

New speaker units in the appliances open the door for better-engineered modern sound that can be consistent across the GE Appliances product lineup

CAFÉ visual to sound translation

CAFÉ brand

Pattern

Color

Bright, Glassy

Lux

Theme

Motif, Rhythm

Layers, Playful

Glassy, Sharp

Wood, Damp

Theme

The theme of CAFÉ Appliances is in C Major, playing every letter of the word CAFÉ, however, instead of playing the E, we’ll read the accent (_´_ ) as sharp (#). E# is the same as F and playing two F’s in two octaves will convey a better sense of conclusion.

Motif, Rhythm

To convey the sense of pattern, playfulness of the CAFÉ design, the simple 4/4 counts is changed to a rhythmic note.

Layers

Different layers of melody are added to bring the tune to life. Each layer is represented harmonically but in different octaves to convey the colorful and complex functionality of the product.

Instrument

Lastly, each layer is assigned an instrument (before and after layering). Each instrument is customized to follow the brand and visual values of CAFÉ Appliances. The main instruments are as follow:

Reverse Piano for the initial build-up.

Parallel Earth Piano for a reverb background.

Glockenspiel as the main layer of the melody.

Grand Piano and music box as added layers.

Lastly, each layer is assigned an instrument (before and after layering). Each instrument is customized to follow the brand and visual values of CAFÉ Appliances. The main instruments are as follow:

Reverse Piano for the initial build-up.

Parallel Earth Piano for a reverb background.

Glockenspiel as the main layer of the melody.

Grand Piano and music box as added layers.

Glockenspiel sculpture

There are different layers of Glockenspiel that builds the main melody of CAFÉ Appliances. This is because in each layer the sculpture of this instrument have different materials to better convey the brand and context of use like wood and glass.

Final result:

Reminder

Material consideration

Different materials in Glockenspiel sculpture have different pitch and wavelength that is important to be considered in the context of use. For example in the case of Reminder sound, the material is more adjusted towards steel and glass that creates shorter wavelength which is louder and can be easily heard.

Contact

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Contact

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Contact

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