Four Effects of Sound Audit
Evaluate sound through its physical, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral effects
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 7
- Confidence
- 99%
Treasure proposes four lenses for evaluating sound: physical, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral. First inventory every audible touchpoint, including accidental ones such as delivery noise, telephone menus, reception televisions, alarms, checkout beeps, or poor loudspeakers. Then examine what each sound may do to bodily arousal, how it changes feeling, whether it supports or disrupts thinking, and what action it encourages. The framework broadens audio branding beyond a jingle: a recognizable sonic logo cannot compensate for a frustrating call system or distracting environment. Redesign begins with the most harmful or irritating touchpoints and should be tested with actual users or workers. Treasure cites examples and studies in the interview, but the audit is a hypothesis-generating tool; specific causal claims require evidence in the setting being changed.
Origin
Extracted from The Diary of a CEO. Julian Treasure organizes sound's influence into four effects—physical, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral—and applies them to brands and environments.
Core principles
- 01Every organization already creates sound whether it designs it or not
- 02Sound may affect physical arousal, feeling, thought, and action
- 03An effective visual environment can still fail acoustically
- 04Repeated sound should be recognizable without becoming irritating
- 05Claims about effects should be tested in the real context
How to run it
- 1
Inventory the Soundscape
List what a person hears across the full journey, including designed audio and accidental noise. Include quiet periods and transitions, not only signature sounds.
Pro tip Walk the journey at the same time and under the same conditions as the user.
- 2
Assess Physical Effects
Identify sounds that may startle, fatigue, or increase arousal and note who is exposed, how loudly, and for how long. Treat this as an assessment prompt rather than a diagnosis.
Pro tip Prioritize sudden, loud, repetitive, or unavoidable sounds for measurement.
Watch out The interview's physiological examples are general claims and do not replace acoustic, occupational-health, or medical assessment.
- 3
Assess Emotional Effects
Record the feelings and associations each sound evokes for relevant users. Distinguish the designer's intention from the audience's reported response.
Pro tip Test repeated exposure, because a pleasant first impression can become irritating.
- 4
Assess Cognitive Effects
Test whether the sound helps or disrupts comprehension, concentration, memory, or task performance. Match the test to the actual work being done.
Pro tip Compare the same task under the current soundscape and a quieter or redesigned condition.
Watch out Do not generalize Treasure's open-office productivity number to every workplace without checking its source and context.
- 5
Assess Behavioral Effects
Observe whether sound changes choices, dwell time, abandonment, complaints, or other relevant actions. Separate correlation from causation where possible.
Pro tip Change one sound variable at a time when running a comparison.
- 6
Redesign the Worst Touchpoint
Remove or improve the sound with the clearest negative evidence before adding a new sonic asset. Preserve useful consistency without making repetition irritating.
Pro tip Fix a frustrating phone tree before commissioning a sonic logo.
- 7
Retest the Experience
Repeat the relevant physical, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral checks after the change. Keep the redesign only when the intended experience improves.
Pro tip Include people with different ages and access needs when they use the experience.
In the wild
Treasure describes automated call systems and on-hold audio as sounds a business already makes, even when leaders say they have not started using sound. A frustrating sequence may cause callers to abandon the interaction, making it part of the brand experience whether designed or not.
→ The organization treats an operational sound as a customer-experience issue rather than ignoring it as technical plumbing.
Treasure recounts a supermarket study in which French and German background music were alternated near corresponding wine displays. He reports that purchasing shifted toward the country associated with the music, while many surveyed shoppers did not report noticing it.
→ The example illustrates a possible behavioral effect of environmental sound, presented as Treasure's account of a study.
Common mistakes
Designing Only for the Eyes
Treasure repeatedly argues that visual investment can coexist with an unpleasant or ineffective soundscape.
Adding Before Auditing
A new jingle does not repair accidental noises that already frustrate customers or workers.
Assuming an Effect Without Testing
The four lenses generate questions; real users and task-specific evidence should determine whether a proposed change works.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for customer journeys, workplaces, products, podcasts, retail spaces, and brands with repeated audible touchpoints.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal for asserting universal physiological or behavioral outcomes without context-specific evidence and appropriate expertise.
From the transcript
“all businesses all organizations and all brands are making sound already”
“sound changes your feelings”
“sound changes our Behavior”
From the episode
The Speaking Expert: How To Speak So Everyone Hears You: Julian Treasure