Study what context would help listeners learn common sounds for each location

[scottveirs]

This feature request is based on feedback received from a user of v3 on 1/16/24:

It would be good UX to indicate if low tide is making me hear something other than whales. What I can expect to hear via a sample or description. Some areas were silent, some were running water, some sounded like a generator.

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe. I'm not sure, but it sounds like the reader didn't find/see the drawer -- which for most locations would provide some of the context the user requests. Perhaps the UX team can confirm this is the problem?

The user also seems to want more context than we currently offer, e.g. a play list with "typical" sound samples that are most commonly heard at a particular location...

Describe the solution you'd like The UX team should either close this issue, incorporate the feedback into a new one, or design/test solutions to find an optimal one.

Describe alternatives you've considered None.

Additional context None.

[scottveirs]

@paulcretu I tried to "self-triage" but feel free to modify as you see fit! (And just LMK if this sort of issue even belongs here, rather than in e.g. a Github discussion with the UX team, or ??)

[Filadora]

Suggestion: to start with adding common sounds for each location.

[Filadora]

Then possibly add more context: description of the sounds, and social context of the whales sounds.

[Filadora]

Also, presenting recent activities for each location would be helpful for users to get an idea of which sounds are common for the location.

[Filadora]

https://www.figma.com/file/41JuvNkXJhTUob8HMsJiNC/Orcasite%3A-design-updates?type=design&node-id=987%3A5365&mode=design&t=6QBWxs18uupNt7kc-1

[scottveirs]

@Filadora Thinking about it a bit more, a key research question is whether users (New listeners and/or Concerned Community Scientists?) like the one who provided feedback want general education about common Salish Sea sounds at https://live.orcasound.net/learn, or specific guidance about what sounds are peculiar to a particular location -- i.e. in the drawer associated with a feed page like https://live.orcasound.net/listen/port-townsend and/or in a dropdown filterable by hydrophone location below the "common" sounds https://live.orcasound.net/learn.

The easiest place to get "common" sounds that are often heard at all locations would be from the orcabooth repo. Both .mp3 and .ogg formats are provided here -- https://github.com/orcasound/orcabooth/tree/master/sounds/local/Normalized-stereo-clips -- and any of them can be used without attribution (except for the ones in the others directory).

The easiest way to get sounds that are peculiar to particular hydrophone locations, but also common and therefore teaching to listeners who frequent a particular location would be to identify them over time from the reports page and then convert them to static (mp3 and/or ogg) files once we have a prioritized list of the desired amount of sound samples... For example, for the Sunset Bay location, I'd prioritize these types of peculiar but common sounds:

• The clattering sound of Washington State Ferries going back and forth between Edmonds and Kingston, or Mukilteo and Clinton that often fool users into thinking they are hearing SRKW echolocation (e.g. this report)
• Train passing on nearby tracks just above the beach
• Ladder rung gurgles made at a few states of the local tidal height when small waves push water into/through the rungs of the ladder to which the hydrophone is strapped.
• Waves crashing around hydrophone at very low tides

[Filadora]

@scottveirs That's a great question, thank you for bringing this up and for sharing the folder with sounds along with your prioritization for the Sunset Bay location.

First of all, let me share the User story I formulated by combining users' feedback regarding this issue:

"As a Concerned community scientist/New listener, I want a feature that enables me to easily access samples of the sounds common for each location (possibly accompanied by a sonogram of the sound) along with clicks, calls, and whistles, so that it is easier for me to recognize whales sounds and report them."

Adding samples of the sounds common for each location to the "learn page" with an option to filter by location would be a possible solution. As we discussed, we can start with that while the design team is working on further design improvement taking into consideration that according to recent observations, New Listeners tend to jump into "Listening" as a first step, skipping the "Learning the sounds" step, so that it would be helpful to add access to the sample sounds (present sample sounds) for them while they are listening.