Designing affective notification sounds for neurodivergent people with decreased sound tolerances to be used in a virtual pet
Author
Blauner, August Palving
Term
4. Term
Education
Publication year
2026
Submitted on
2026-08-21
Abstract
Many neurodivergent people find it difficult to build and maintain healthy habits. This thesis explores how a virtual pet app can support healthy habits by creating emotional attachment between the user and the digital pet. The work focuses specifically on auditory notifications, which have been largely overlooked in previous research, even though decreased sound tolerance (DST) is common among neurodivergent people. The starting point is that cuteness makes virtual pets more emotionally engaging. By examining auditory cuteness and “kawaii” vocal qualities, the thesis identifies useful audio parameters and descriptive features. A focus group was set up to define design requirements: sounds should be animal-like yet clearly digital, soft and rounded, avoid high frequencies, and avoid sad or guilt-inducing tones. These requirements guided an iterative design process to create audio notifications for a virtual pet, with particular attention to sound sensitivities. The process concluded with an online listening test (N=9), where three designed sounds were compared to three control sounds. Participants rated the sounds on pleasantness, painfulness, annoyance, discomfort, and cuteness. The designed sounds were found to be statistically significantly less painful than the control sounds. No statistically significant differences were found for annoyance or discomfort, but combined with qualitative feedback, the results suggest that the designed sounds to some extent support guidelines for auditory notifications for neurodivergent people with DST. The designed sounds were also rated as statistically significantly cuter, reinforcing previous research on auditory cuteness and the use of “kawaii” vocal qualities. Since no long-term study was conducted, further research is needed to understand how these sound effects work over extended periods of use.
Mange neurodivergente mennesker oplever, at det er svært at opbygge og fastholde sunde vaner. I dette projekt undersøges, hvordan en virtuel kæledyrsapp kan støtte sunde vaner ved at skabe følelsesmæssig tilknytning mellem brugeren og det digitale kæledyr. Der fokuseres særligt på lydnotifikationer, som tidligere forskning ofte har overset, selv om der er høj forekomst af nedsat lydtolerance (Decreased Sound Tolerance, DST) blandt neurodivergente. Udgangspunktet er, at sødme eller “cutness” gør virtuelle kæledyr mere følelsesmæssigt engagerende. Ved at undersøge auditiv sødme og “kawaii” stemmekvaliteter identificeres brugbare lydparametre og beskrivelser. En fokusgruppe blev nedsat for at formulere krav til lyddesign: lydene skulle lyde dyriske, men tydeligt digitale, være bløde og runde, undgå høje frekvenser og undgå triste eller skyldbetonede klange. Disse krav blev brugt i en iterativ designproces, hvor der blev udviklet lydnotifikationer til et virtuelt kæledyr med særlig hensyntagen til lydsensitivitet. Processen blev afsluttet med en online lytteundersøgelse (N=9), hvor tre designede lyde blev sammenlignet med tre kontrollyde. Deltagerne vurderede lydene på behagelighed, smertefuldhed, irritation, ubehag og sødme. Resultaterne viste, at de designede lyde var statistisk signifikant mindre smertefulde end kontrollydene. Der blev ikke fundet statistisk signifikante forskelle i irritation eller ubehag, men sammenholdt med den kvalitative feedback tyder det på, at de designede lyde i nogen grad understøtter retningslinjer for lydnotifikationer til neurodivergente med DST. De designede lyde blev også vurderet som statistisk signifikant mere søde, hvilket understøtter tidligere forskning i auditiv sødme og brugen af “kawaii” stemmekvaliteter. Da der ikke er gennemført langtidsstudier, er der behov for yderligere forskning i, hvordan disse lyde fungerer ved længerevarende brug.
[This abstract has been rewritten with the help of AI based on the project's original abstract]
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