7. Pros and cons of using sound
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
Can convey information to people who might have poor literacy skills | Strong accents can make it difficult to understand what someone is saying. |
Can convey a large amount of information fairly quickly | Need to be able to understand the language in order to understand what is being said |
Can free you up to concentrate on something else e.g. Sat Nav instructions allow you to concentrate on the road | People with poor hearing might not be able to access the information |
Can convey information to many people at once | Some public speaker systems are muffled and difficult to understand |
Don't need to actually see somebody to be able to hear them | Might be too much background noise to hear the information correctly |
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
Can convey information and warnings very quickly e.g. a fire bell | Need to know what the sound signal represents in order to understand the information/message |
Sounds are accessible and understandable by people no matter what language they speak | People with poor hearing might not be able to access the information |
Can convey information to many people at once | Can be distracting especially if people are trying to concentrate |
Humans are sensitive to sound and will often pick information conveyed by sound above other methods |