Issue 98

Software that makes sounds

Hello, dear readers! 👋

In this issue, among other things:

• Basic article about sound design in applications

• 10 Design Principles by Jessica Walsh

• Stanford University's Annual Report on Trends in AI

• A selection of articles about the patterns of using AI in tools

• Alternative to Sora from China

• A web service that will help you determine the style of your interface

• New Figma plugins

• …and much more!

Enjoy reading!

🗞 News and articles

10 Rules for Great Branding & Design &Walsh

Jessica Walsh shared ten principles that will be useful in working on design and, especially, branding. She explained why there is no innate talent, what is the value of limitations, why branding should not be fashionable, what is the benefit of failures and other subtleties of the profession.

The Sound of Software

The Not Boring team has released a valuable basic article on sound design in applications. They talked about when to use sound, how to design it, how to make it informative and much more. There are great visual examples inside the article.

They also gave a couple of tips on where to start and which tools to use, as well as shared their own pack of sounds.

Some tips from the article:

• Add variation to the sounds so that they are similar, but slightly different. For example, when voicing buttons in a calculator. Then instead of just repeating, you will create a texture

• Feel free to combine and layer sounds on top of each other to get an original and interesting sound

• Think about how your sounds will fit together. The soundscape should be perceived as a single whole, similar to the visual system of the brand

• Sounds of similar actions should have common characteristics such as tone, instruments, and effects. For the opposite ones (for example, open and close), on the contrary, they should differ and indicate the direction of action

• To get original sounds, look for inspiration in the real world

• Do not test sound design only on studio equipment. Listen to your sounds the way users will listen to them

⚡️ Briefly

New technologies

AI Index Report 2024. The latest issue of Stanford University's annual report on AI trends.

A few observations from the report:

• AI is already partially bypassing humans in the tasks of understanding and classifying images, as well as understanding English

• The cost of training modern models has reached record levels. For example, $78 million for GPT-4 and $191 million for Gemini Ultra

• AI increases productivity and also reduces the gap between beginners and experienced employees

• AI accelerates scientific progress. In 2023, AI tools were launched in almost all areas of scientific activity

• States began to control neural networks more. For example, in the United States by 2023 there were already 25 regulations, and in 2016 there was only one

• The percentage of people who believe that AI will dramatically affect their lives in the near future has increased from 60% to 66%

• The United States is a leader in the development of AI models, despite the fact that China has many articles on this topic

The full report is immediately available in PDF.