Explicit vs. Implicit Auditory Displays for Managing People Flow in a Pandemic: An Exploratory Study

Abstract Social distancing is one of the key measures to lower infections during a pandemic. Pedestrian signage is one way to achieve this by managing the flow of people to reduce crowdedness. However, visual signs can clutter the environment and might not be noticed by pedestrians. In this paper, w...

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Veröffentlicht in:Interacting with computers Jg. 37; H. 6; S. 535 - 547
Hauptverfasser: Kuratomo, Noko, Karic, Benjamin, Kray, Christian
Format: Journal Article
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: Oxford University Press 01.11.2025
Schlagworte:
sound-based input/output
participatory design
empirical studies in HCI
user studies
ISSN:0953-5438, 1873-7951
Online-Zugang:Volltext
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Zusammenfassung:Abstract Social distancing is one of the key measures to lower infections during a pandemic. Pedestrian signage is one way to achieve this by managing the flow of people to reduce crowdedness. However, visual signs can clutter the environment and might not be noticed by pedestrians. In this paper, we propose auditory displays for managing pedestrian flow. We developed implicit and explicit sound signs, evaluated them in a user study with 16 participants and compared our results to those reported for visual signage. Our results show that auditory signs are as effective as visual signs in managing the flow of people. Although using explicit sounds tends to be more effective than using implicit sounds, our findings indicate a tendency for implicit sounds to be preferred by participants with respect to environmental comfort. Our work contributes to the understanding of auditory displays and facilitates investigating further uses beyond pedestrian flow management during a pandemic.
ISSN:0953-5438
1873-7951
DOI:10.1093/iwc/iwaf008