In living and working environments, arranging work environments such as lighting and background sounds on rooms and desks according to purpose is an effective means to improve work efficiency and comfort. However, in desktop environments within computer screens, various application windows are opened for different purposes, but there is little interest in individual environmental enhancement for each of them. This research focuses on the fact that multiple work environments are juxtaposed in the desktop like in buildings, and aims to improve work efficiency by constructing environments according to purpose for each.
This time, we focused on the audio environment and created “Desktop Soundscape” that forms an audio field to promote efficient work by adding different background sounds to each window on the desktop. When a window on the screen is focused, the background sound pre-assigned to the window or the task running within the window is played in a loop. This allows users to switch work environments according to task switching. The intended effect is to make users aware of task switching and promote concentration or relaxation.
