A Better Use of Sound
Remember: The Audience is Listening
H Periodic Table
Of The Elements
He
Li Be B C N O F Ne
Na Mg Al Si P S Cl Ar
K Ca Sc Ti V Cr Mn Fe Co Ni Cu Zn Ga Ge As Se Br Kr
Rb Sr Y Zr Nb Mo Tc Ru Rh Pd Ag Cd In Sn Sb Te I Xe
Cs Ba La Hf Ta W Re Os Ir Pt Au Hg Tl Pb Bi Po At Rn
Fr Ra Ac
Lanthanide Ce Pr Nd Pm Sm Eu Gd Tb Dy Ho Er Tm Yb Lu
Actinide Th Pa U Np Pu Am Cm Bk Cf Es Fm Md No Lr
Pretend for a moment that this is a real Web page. Click on some of the elements in the table, and then come back again. It's almost like a breath of fresh air after that last page, isn't it? The sound being used here is an actual sound (duhhh...) from an actual Web page. I ran across it on the "Bill Nye The Science Guy"internet link page. Not only do those guys put a lot of thought into their show, but into their pages as well.


The Audience is Listening

Years ago, when the Macintosh® first exposed typographic neophytes to the wonderful world of fonts, the term "Font Ugly" was coined to describe a document that was designed by somebody who really didn't know what they heck they were doing. With the BGSOUND tag allowing anybody to easily attach a background sound to their Web pages, perhaps we should coin a new term: "Sound Stupid."
I often find myself helping other people create Web pages, as well as Web sites. Occasionally, one of these sites is using a background sound on some of their key pages. They think it adds excitement, they think it's cool multimedia, they think that this is what the users want. Then why do they often comment the sound out while they are working on those pages? Simple: They get tired of hearing the sound over and over again. Perhaps they need to get a clue.
I'm not trying to say that you shouldn't use BGSOUND; I've got a BGSOUND on this page that I even set to loop continuously. It's been playing in the background all of the time I've spent writing up this page. Nice, soft, gentle. You can barely tell it's there. This is the sort of sound that would be appropriate for a page that the user is constantly navigating into, or through.
I'm also not trying to say that large, blaring sounds should never be used; just that they should never be used on a main page. The Godzilla roar is obviously not a good choice for a menu page. Where would it work? Perhaps on a dead-end page that gave vital stats for Godzilla; someplace that users will hit only a few times while they navigate through your site.
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