Using the audio of 8-bit video games to monitor web marketing campaigns

Abstract

Monitoring the performance of a web marketing campaign is usually a long-lasting, low-effort but distracting task, where a user repeatedly glances at some sort of visual analytics tools to check whether the campaign is going well. In this paper, we explore an alternative approach for this task, where the performance of a web marketing campaign is monitored through sonification, using the soundset of popular 8-bit arcade video games. On one hand, sonification would allow a user to be constantly informed about the current state of the campaign without being distracted. On the other hand, the sound metaphors coming from popular 8-bit arcade video games would be able to convey information about the status of the campaign in a simple and effective way (i.e., if the sonification of a campaign resembles the audio of a successful game session, then the campaign is going well). We investigated this idea by developing a prototype system for the sonification of the behavior of a web server activity through a configurable set of sound metaphors. We then analyzed the effectiveness of our approach by conducting a simple experimental study. This was done, first, by sonifying the progress of a given web marketing campaign using the soundset of two popular 8-bit video games: Super Mario Bros and Bubble Bobble. The outcoming soundtrack was then used in a controlled setting to assess the performance of a group of 20 participants listening to our soundtrack under different work conditions.