The impacts of sound design on listening experience of a road-trip audio guide

The listening experience is particularly important for a road-trip audio guide, because audio guides heavily rely on the auditory channel without the support of a visual channel. Playing a key role in influencing listening experience, sound design is especially important in an audio guide. This study evaluates the effect of three different sound design factors --- sound effects, music, and voice gender --- on respondent emotional and cognitive experience of an audio guide, by conducting a 2x2x3 full factorial experimental design. Additionally, four variables --- mental imagery, attention, comfortableness, and familiarity --- are suggested to be mediators of the effectiveness of sound design on the emotional and cognitive experience of an audio guide. The research is in line with the call for increased research effort to better understand how tourism can contribute to the enhancement of visitors’ experience in city tourism, and the call for studies on technology-integrated products in smart tourism. In addition to the theoretical interest of this topic, it has practical relevance because it aids audio program developers in understanding what helps to create to a good auditory experience.