Introduction

Why will ring tones always be annoying?In fact, there is a very short answer to that question.  In general ring tones are attention or warning signals, and for people, for whom such a signal is not meant, hearing it is a false alarm. People do not like false alarms and, hence, ring tones get annoying after hearing them a few times.  

In contrast with ring tones, there are many sounds in our environment which we generally do not find annoying: foot steps, closing doors, cars passing by, birds singing and church bells are just a few examples. These sounds, though sometimes very well audible, do not divert the attention of people from what they are doing. Indeed, people reading a book, keep on reading; people falling asleep, are not woken up. Actually, these environmental sounds are not really perceived as sounds but as events which take place in our environment. They are interpreted as images of what happens around us.  In fact, they confirm the image listeners have of their environment and what is going on.  If such environmental sounds are not very loud nor indicating "new" events, they are assuring. The listeners can go on with what they are doing. Ring tones, on the other hand, must inherently draw away our attention from what we are doing, because they always indicate that something new is going on. .   

But this does not make any ring tone as annoying as any other, and so we ask what makes one ring tone more annoying than another.  In order to answer this question, we will first have to consider some elementary design principles for signals meant to draw attention, to warn, or to indicate an alarming situation. (Most of the principles mentioned here are derived from Edworthy & Adams, 1996, and Stanton & Edworthy, 1999. )By considering a few natural design principles, it will appear that, taking a few considerations into account, ring tones can be made less annoying and more functional.