7.12 Conclusion
We have seen that the senses work together in uniquely individual ways that support how we adjust and react to everything around us. Sensory experience is most often multimodal and shifts over time, space, and context. Design is a job that extends beyond the object – it includes identifying people’s multisensory patterns of adapting, adjusting, perceiving, and responding to the design features that support or distract them from accomplishing their goals. The more awareness a designer can have of the user’s journey while interacting with a product, service, or environment, the more its multisensory aesthetics can be adjusted and attuned to specific activities and interactions. This awareness is also informed by routines and rituals that engage different sensory interactions over time.
A key role for the designer is to integrate different multisensory qualities into a holistic set of sensory experiences in the design of products, services, and environments – while complimenting all of the other factors contributing to a well-rounded design solution. While there is no specific formula for balancing multisensory experiences, the most important considerations include awareness of the hierarchy, dominance, blend and juxtaposition of multisensory interactions and how they might engage and delight everyone.
Key Takeaways
The key takeaways from this chapter include:
- Understanding how people process their experiences through all of their senses by simultaneously interpreting layers of sensory stimulation and reacting to them.
- Knowledge about designing features that engage different senses during distinct phases of product use, where certain product interactions are the result of sensory dominance.
- Recognition of the importance of delightful product interactions and the various ways product design can support them and avoid frustrating product-use experiences.
- Awareness of the multisensory design principles of flow, maintaining focus, managing demands on attention shifting, and sequencing for determining product features that lead to positive interactions and outcomes.
- Appreciation of the importance of designing for a wide range of people’s different sensory abilities by applying unique multimodal design combinations that address crossmodal and accessible design.
- An overview of the multisensory dynamics of movement across moving parts and moving people in a variety of ways that add depth to design development, exploration, and responsive kinetic aesthetics.
- Acknowledgement that the senses are rarely, if ever, experienced in isolation; most interactions with products, environments, and services are multisensory and can be combined in infinite combinations as long as they make it possible for users to easily achieve their goals.
Chapter 7: DESIGN FOR MULTISENSORY EXPERIENCES & kINETICS
Reflection Time!
Instructions
- Type your reflections for the 3Ts below: Thoughts, Tips, and Tools.
- To download your reflections as a document, click EXPORT to open a summary preview, then click the export icon on the top right of the window.
- Use your reflections to recall the key ideas later and to apply them in future situations.
Supplementary Activities for this Chapter
The Sense-It! Activities are categorized according to the Catalyze, Learn, and Apply (CLA) model defining the intended learning outcomes of the different categories of activities. This learning model is described in more depth on page 8 of the booklet Sense-It! In Action: Facilitator’s Guide, along with descriptions of the Sense-It! Product Cards and Sense-It! Tiles. These supplementary resources can be downloaded here.
An overview of each of the Sense-It! Activities and instructions for facilitating them can be found on pages 10-19 of the Facilitators’ Guide. The activities designed to support this chapter can be found starting on page 92 of the Sense-It! Activities booklet.
Key Words: Multisensory awareness and design, Multimodal design experiences, Sensory dominance, Delight, Multisensory design principles, Crossmodal and inclusive design, Sensory incongruity, Synaesthetic experiences, Kinetic and Collapsible design
