Sound Ergonomics to Enhance Alarm Management

The research and sound design team consists of members from the Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering and Plymouth University, School of Psychology. The main team members included one industrial designer specialized in sound design and research and two experimental and applied psychologists specialized in auditory perception and cognition in the field of sound design and application. The main task consisted of three parts: i. analysis of the current situation in the mission control rooms in which operators (Spacons and engineers) responded to auditory messages and took further action; ii. design of an auditory display with auditory messages (i.e., sounds) that corresponded to the operators' needs and system requirements; and iii. evaluation of the designed sounds with operators.