--- title: How we designed empathetic alert sounds for on-call... description: Datadog redesigned its on-call alert sounds using a research-first approach focused on engineer well-being. Working with audio agency Sanctus, they identified... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/how-we-designed-empathetic-alert-sounds-for-on-call-engineers-iaep2wdbd twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: How we designed empathetic alert sounds for on-call engineers | daily.dev og:description: Datadog redesigned its on-call alert sounds using a research-first approach focused on engineer well-being. Working with audio agency Sanctus, they identified... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/how-we-designed-empathetic-alert-sounds-for-on-call-engineers-iaep2wdbd og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/iAep2WdBd.png og:image:alt: How we designed empathetic alert sounds for on-call engineers og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # How we designed empathetic alert sounds for on-call engineers **[Datadog](https://daily.dev/sources/datadog)** · 6 min read · 7 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Datadog redesigned its on-call alert sounds using a research-first approach focused on engineer well-being. Working with audio agency Sanctus, they identified four on-call engineer personas: the Noise Navigator (needs sounds that cut through loud environments), the Discreet Engineer (needs subtle context-blending sounds for shared spaces), the Sleepy Engineer (needs low-frequency melodic tones that wake reliably without adding stress), and the Humorist (prefers playful sounds to lighten on-call burden). Each persona is backed by academic research on auditory perception, fire safety alarms, and cognitive performance. The resulting sound library is categorized into Urgent, Everyday, Gentle, and Playful tiers, available in the Datadog mobile app's On-Call feature. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Less Noise, Better Sleep: Data-Driven Approach to Healthier Alerts](https://daily.dev/posts/less-noise-better-sleep-data-driven-approach-to-healthier-alerts-eupswouhg) · monday Engineering · 22 upvotes · 0 comments - [Confessions of a software engineer who enjoyed being paged at 5am](https://daily.dev/posts/confessions-of-a-software-engineer-who-enjoyed-being-paged-at-5am-qhv6rvadd) · Coralogix · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#devops](https://daily.dev/tags/devops) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/how-we-designed-empathetic-alert-sounds-for-on-call-engineers-iaep2wdbd) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"How we designed empathetic alert sounds for on-call engineers","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-we-designed-empathetic-alert-sounds-for-on-call-engineers-iaep2wdbd","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-we-designed-empathetic-alert-sounds-for-on-call-engineers-iaep2wdbd"},"datePublished":"2026-04-02T15:19:48.811Z","dateModified":"2026-04-02T15:24:12.418Z","description":"Datadog redesigned its on-call alert sounds using a research-first approach focused on engineer well-being. 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