A method to analyze the sound environment and its relation with typical professional tasks is described in which structured non participative observations are combined with audio recordings. First results of a field study are reported, directed towards the day shift of hospital nurses, working at a surgical ward.
With this method we want to contribute context specific outcomes which we consider a prerequisite for the design of dedicated laboratory experiments which can reveal insights transferrable to natural work settings. In our reading of the literature we see many studies on task-sound interaction with one or more of the following shortcomings:
1. The sound conditions used in the experiment are not representative for the dedicated environment.
2. The experimental task is not representative for tasks performed in the dedicated environment.
3. The task-sound interaction is such that subjects are instructed to ignore environmental sounds while in real life they first need to attach meaning to each sound in order to decide whether it is (ir)relevant.
It is our expectation that the proposed method helps design experiments that overcome these shortcomings.
