Edinburgh Napier University

  Recent research identified sixteen dimensions along which sound designers make decisions when ideating and sketching sounds. These 16 dimensions can be grouped into “Overarching strategies”, “Design Strategies” and “Approaches to sound”. In this paper, the ideation process of two professional sound designers - both working in media production - is analysed through a novel two-step methodology. During the first-step, the process is segmented by idea type. In the second-step, each idea is analysed in terms of sound design dimensions. Finally, the analysis of the interaction between idea types and sound design dimensions provides us with an overall view of the main similarities and differences between the two sound designers. Overall, this methodology provides an effective way to analyse several aspects of the sound design ideation process in a structured and systematic manner.