How we designed empathetic alert sounds for on-call engineers

Datadog redesigned its on-call notification sounds to prioritize engineer well-being, recognizing that traditional alerts contribute to burnout and alert fatigue. They partnered with audio experts and conducted research into auditory perception and emotional response to create four distinct sound "personas" – catering to different work environments and personal preferences (e.g., loud offices, quiet homes, waking sleepers). By focusing on empathetic sound design, Datadog aims to reduce unnecessary stress while ensuring critical alerts are noticed and acted upon, ultimately improving the on-call experience for engineers.