Prototyping, user testing, and sound design

Would you like to test the impact of your product development or technical innovation on the user early on during the development phase? Through experimental prototyping, we support development processes by gaining feedback from users on new solutions at a very early stage.

Our experts for user research have several room laboratories for impact research at their disposal. Here, innovations are tried out and evaluated in a wide range of contexts by test persons. These trials with test subjects form an essential part of the development process for new products with regard to user-centered design. There are no limits to the range of products tested. With many years of experience and innovative technologies, we can offer our customers excellent support when it comes to user testing and studies involving test persons in various research contexts.

Psychoacoustics, cognitive ergonomics, and sound design

Over the years, our research team has developed specific and unique skills to assess acoustic solutions and sound design. In hearing tests, test persons evaluate innovations in terms of various (psycho-)acoustic parameters. This allows conclusions to be drawn about effects on health and performance, as well as subjective satisfaction, and also to predict long-term user acceptance.

At Fraunhofer IBP, a wide variety of test facilities is available for evaluation using hearing tests: sound scenarios can be realistically reproduced directly in a room using the 3D audio simulation capabilities of our impact research laboratories. Individual noises and tests close to the auditory thresholds can be analyzed more specifically via headphones. Tablet or computer-based systems and online survey tools are provided for test subjects to evaluate sound scenarios. In addition to pure noise evaluation, performance measurements are also carried out in laboratory tests under various acoustic environmental scenarios.

From the sound design of a toilet flush through performance assessments under exposure to ventilation and machine noise up to the simulation of scenarios in museums and open space offices, there are no limits to the aspects we can research in psychoacoustics and cognitive ergonomics.