Little Bio (Elif Özcan Vieira)

Sound design has always fascinated me. From my professional years as a sound designer for a popular radio station (Radyo ODTU) in Ankara, Turkey (my country of origin), I remember the magical feeling of being able to give form to sounds, this seemingly intangible medium, and experiencing its immediate effect on me, both mentally and physically. However, the more I studied about the theories of product experience, human behavior, and mental processes over the years, the more I have come to realize that there is more to designing sounds, especially sounds that belong to everyday products or everyday contexts.

Currently, I am concerned about sound-driven design and research in the fields of mobility, space operations and healthcare. I investigate how people respond to audible alarms and how design can fight against alarm fatigue caused by excessive amount of non-actionable alarms in these fields. Besides my research activities, I teach the theory and practice of form and experience-driven and sound-driven design at the TU Delft Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering. My academic career started at the TU Delft as well, with doing a PhD study on products sounds (check my thesis: Product Sounds: Fundamentals & Application).

When I have free time from my research activities, I like to take photos, jog and play tennis and to spend time with my husband and three lovely daughters. As a matter of fact, this explains my occupation as a sounding board member of DEWIS (the women’s network of the TU Delft) as well: I am an advocate for women in science.