A Sonic Experience Built for Robotic Surgery
In surgical environments, device sound carries critical responsibility. Surgeons interpret audio cues instantly, often without looking away from the procedure, while operating rooms are already filled with competing noise. This makes sonic clarity, hierarchy, and restraint essential—and leaves little room for ambiguity or inconsistency.
Smith+Nephew’s orthopedic portfolio had grown complex, with disparate tones across devices, diluting clarity and brand expression. In partnership with Priority Designs, we re-architected the sonic experience—bringing precision, consistency, and brand intent to every interaction, and transforming sound into a unified, recognizable system across the entire product line.
The Challenge
Sound must be instantly clear in high-stakes, noisy environments while supporting usability and expressing the brand across devices.
Our Solution
A unified sonic system built from the ground up, maximizing usability while creating a modern, consistent sonic brand.
The Outcome
The new sounds allowed Smith+Nephew to quickly update their devices to clearer, more cohesive audio across their devices.
If your product were human, what kind of voice should it have?
We used brand personality and tone-of-voice sliders as a shared framework to guide sonic brand development, grounding creative decisions in clearly defined brand attributes. Collaborating closely with the client, this helped ensure the future sounds embodied their brand accurately, consistently, and with intent.
Corporate Sound Signature Concept
A vibrant, lively, uplifting sonic brand expression to help define what “Life Unlimited” could sound like.
Surgical Product Signature
Augmenting the corporate signature to a more digital, minimal expression for on-product use and inspiration.
Consolidate the sound system, bring a modern, calibrated feel.
One of Smith+Nephew’s key goals was to create a single, global sound kit that could scale across features and functions on many devices. While our initial work focused on updating tones for a select set of surgical systems, we took a high-level audit of broader device behaviors to ensure coverage and consistency. The resulting sounds were designed to be ready to extend across future devices without losing clarity or brand integrity.
Understanding Cori's Surgical Environment
To design a meaningful sonic experience, PD’s team embedded themselves in the surgical environment—observing procedures, interacting with devices firsthand, and interviewing clinical staff. This immersion allowed us to understand not just how the devices functioned, but when and why sound was truly needed. We conducted an extensive audit of the existing audio landscape, identifying missed opportunities, redundant cues, and moments where sound could enhance clarity, safety, or workflow. By mapping out these scenarios, we began to define a purposeful role for sound—shaped by real-world use, not assumptions.
Alerts
Alerts are used from a range of low to high urgency, helping quickly steer the user towards correct usage.
Low Alert
Medium Alert
High Alert
Input Confirmation
A series of neutral input confirmation tones add depth and responsiveness to the interactions, providing subtle but effective feedback.
Input General
Input Backward
Input Forward
Success Confirmation
Positive, confirmation tones help keep users on the correct path in workflows, and provide a clear sense of progress.
Power Up
Task Success
Instrument Connect
Usability, by Design
Through the conceptualization process, we gathered structured feedback from stakeholders to shape the sonic system towards usability and brand goals. Concept sounds were tested to assess clarity, emotional tone, and effectiveness. Stakeholders assessed sounds through a framework of numeric scoring and descriptive language, enabling fast, aligned decision-making. This input helped refine everything from tone hierarchy to timing—ensuring the final system wasn’t just well-designed, but truly usable in the environments it was built for.
A Deliberate Spectrum of Pitch, Timbre, and Rhythm
From pitch and melody to rhythm and timbre, every sonic element was designed to operate within a tightly constrained clinical environment. Decisions were shaped by real-world variables—including speaker performance, ambient noise, user hearing, and the wide range of device interactions—ensuring each sound remains clear, distinct, and purposeful.
Purposeful Sound for Clinical Impact
A varied sonic landscape became a unified system built for real clinical environments. The new sound kit improves usability, reduces distraction, and brings a consistent brand presence to every interaction—without getting in the way of care. Every tone was carefully crafted and strategically placed to guide users, support critical tasks, and reinforce confidence in high-stakes moments. The result is a sonic experience that is as functional as it is distinctly Smith+Nephew.
