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However, I suggest that we should stop thinking about the user and start thinking about roles such as Readers, Producers, Viewers, Browsers, Shoppers and Authors etc instead. Thinking about the user is very limited, but thinking about a Browser for example is much more helpful. We instantly know a little more about a Browser, we have an understanding of what they may be trying to achieve and we can better relate to them.

So stop thinking and talking about the ‘user' and start thinking about user roles (even better create personas and give them a name).

Decisions should not be weighed up against the needs of the ‘user' but the needs of a specific type of user.

So I was recently reminiscing about the days long before the arrival of the blog and web 2.0 (actually probably before 1.0 if that's even possible), when people would hand code small personal websites (or at least use a WYSIWYG editor such as Front Page). These sites were hugely engaging if reading infinitely long textual lists detailing all of the authors' favourite things from top songs to animals was your thing. However that's not all I remember, there was also embedded background music and sound bites (and this was in the days of the 56k dial up modems, if you were lucky). Since those heady days of the early/mid 90's the web seems to have become a rather quieter place of late (even with the proliferation of broadband).

So where did this music go?

I recently posted this very question to the IxDA discussion group to which I subscribe and got a whole bunch of replies from people worried that I was advocating the return of the embedded background midi clip. Rest assured I agree that we really don't want a return to the invasive, poor quality beeping type background tracks that once littered the web. However, I can't help but think that if background music was implemented correctly it could have great benefits for both the user and business alike.

Imagine logging onto Amazon and having the choice of browsing the site with background music being streamed to you as you navigate around. This music could be tailored to the users tastes (based upon previous browsing and purchasing habits) and could highlight new releases within a preferred genre. The user could also select a specific channel to be streamed to them. Not only would this give the business an opportunity to highlight relevant content/products to the user, but the impact music has upon people's mood and ultimately their purchasing decisions is well researched. The ‘bricks and mortar' shops have been filling our heads with music for years while we walk around deciding what to spend our cash upon.

Let's bring the noise back to the web!

The small print...

So, with thanks to the IxDA discussion group, below is a list of features that would need to be considered in order to make background music streams viable:

• The user must have the choice of listening to background music or not. By default music should probably not be streamed, or at the very least the user should be warned it is about to begin and be given the option of stopping it

• If the site has a ‘sample track' feature (like most download sites) then that feature would take precedence over the background music and pause the stream until the sample had finished

• The background music should be branded (maybe even a site jingle between tracks) so that if the user opens a new browser tab and surfs to another site then they will still know what is being streamed

• The user has complete control over starting, stopping, pausing and muting the stream at any time