That Little Sound Wasn’t an Accident: How Sound Shapes Digital Experiences

Have you noticed how so many of the fancy, award-winning websites these days come with their own soundtrack? You land on the page and there’s a soft ambient hum in the background, a gentle whoosh as you scroll, maybe a little click when you hover over something. Some even ask you to “enter with sound” before you can enter, as if you’re entering a gallery instead of opening a website. Is it just because it looks cool, or is there some science behind it?

I went down a bit of a rabbit hole with this one, and the honest answer is that it’s both. Yes, it’s partly a flex. But underneath the flex is some really interesting research about how our brains process the world around us. And once you know it, you start hearing interfaces very differently.

Sound isn’t just something we hear. It’s something we use to understand, judge and remember an experience.

Your Ears Are Quicker Than Your Eyes

We react to sound faster than we react to anything we see. It’s not a huge difference, but it’s surprisingly consistent across research. Researchers who have compared the two have found that an auditory stimulus can reach the brain in around 8-10 milliseconds, while a visual stimulus takes around 20-40 milliseconds. The reason is basically plumbing. Sound takes a shorter route through the brain, while visual information has a few more hoops and curves to get through before it conveys anything. It’s the same reason sprinters start races on the sound of a gun rather than a flashing light. Your ears are simply the faster messenger.

What I love about this is what it means for user experience.

When you tap a button and hear a little confirmation sound, your brain has already registered “that worked” before you even see the success message on screen. The first thing you notice is sound, and it sets the tone for all else you see.

So when those immersive websites greet you with ambient audio, they’re getting to your brain before the visuals start to register.

Sound Changes What We Think We’re Experiencing

This is my favourite piece of research on the topic because it made me go “wait, what?”

In 2004, researchers Massimiliano Zampini and Charles Spence ran an experiment with crisps. Participants ate the crisps while wearing headphones and researchers manipulated the crunch sound in real time. The crisps themselves were all the same. Only the sound changed.

And yet, people perceived the crisps as both crisper and fresher when the crunch sound was made louder or when the higher-frequency sounds were amplified. The best part? People genuinely believed the crisps were different. (The study even went on to win an Ig Nobel Prize in 2008, which is science’s way of saying: “This is hilarious and also weirdly important.”)

Now think about what that means for the UI design of a website or an app. If a crunch can change how fresh a crisp tastes, then sound can absolutely change how premium, responsive, or trustworthy a digital product feels. The same interface can feel polished and alive with the right soundscape, or flat and a bit lifeless without one. That’s really what those ambient sites are doing. They’re not changing the content; they’re changing how your brain judges it.

Sound as a Signature

There’s another side to all of this that I think gets overlooked: how sound can make a product instantly recognisable.

Think about the Microsoft Teams ringtone. You can be in a completely different room and the moment you hear it you know exactly what it is. I’d bet it’s playing in your head right now just from reading this. That’s what a distinctive sound can do. It carries the entire product with it, and it doesn’t need a logo to do the job.

Duolingo pulls off the same trick with its reminder notifications. That cheerful little sound has become part of the brand’s personality. You don’t need to look at your phone to know who’s nudging you, you know it’s the damn owl.

And that’s where sound design goes beyond being useful and starts building a brand. A well-crafted sound can become just as recognisable as a colour or a logo, and in some ways it’s more personal, because it finds you even when you’re not looking at a screen.

So, Should Every Website Start Making Noise?

Please, god no. Nobody wants to open their laptop in a quiet office, or on a packed Luas at 8am, and have a website start serenading everyone around them. If every product suddenly decided it needed a soundtrack, we’d all go slightly mad and the mute button would become the most-used feature on the planet.

It’s all about intention. The best sound design lets people choose whether they want it or not. It tells users something useful instead of just showing off, and it matches the weight of the moment. So a completed payment might deserve a reassuring sound while a hover state probably doesn’t. It also never works alone. Plenty of people have their phones on silent, so sound should always sit alongside clear visual and haptic feedback rather than replacing it.

When it’s done well, you barely notice it (like all good design). You just feel that something worked. That the brand feels a little more polished. That the experience has a bit more personality. Maybe you even want to stick around a little longer.

So the next time a website greets you with a soft hum, you’ll know it isn’t just being cool.

At Friday, we design experiences that engage every sense that matters, not just the one on the screen. Get in touch and let’s make your digital experience sound as good as it looks.