Using sound on your Website

Posted on February 21st, 2008 by Alex in Communication, Design

Sound can be used in a several ways on your website. Firstly it can be used as background music so when the page loads a theme will play automatically. This can be useful if you have a theme or jingle instantly recognisable or synonymous with your company, think Coronation Street.

Secondly and probably the most popular use of sound on a website is using sound bites. A Sound bite is normally a small piece of sound which is attached to a player or button so when the user clicks it the sound bite plays. This is used mostly on sites such as www.amazon.com and www.hmv.co.uk were the user can actually listen to clips of tracks before they buy them.

Although not as common in use sound can also be used as a navigation tool within your website. By including a tiny sound clip behind your sites navigational links or buttons it will confirm to the user that a link has been clicked reassuring them.