Multisensory

Design for Food

Design for Food

A perfect meal involves much more than how the food on the plate tastes. In the dining process, there is a lot going on inside our body in the appreciation and absorption of what we eat. 

This is why the current generation of chefs is interested in going beyond the basic culinary science that they have been taught. Many of these chefs are really curious to learn more about the minds, and not just the palates, of their diners. 

They want to know how does the experience feel. What is the diner's behavior? What elements make an impact on their enjoyment and decisions?

The Power of Touch

The Power of Touch

The significance of touch in human life is primary. 

Like other senses, tactility informs us about the surrounding, prevents our body from danger, contributes to the exploration of an object, but most important it has an emotional component that can give us the feeling of safety and pleasure. 

Yet, according to Weber (1995), tactile mechanisms are undeniably the most complex and least understood. 

Space and Sound

Space and Sound

Understanding the sonic environment is fundamental. We tend to get used to sounds, but we don't notice the impact it has on our behavior.

If you evaluate an environment like the office you will probably notice it is in fact too loud, which can add to your stress levels. As a practice take a minute and listen… you’ll probably hear many sounds that you’ve trained yourself to ignore. 

 

The Smell of the City

The Smell of the City

Typically, design professionals in the west think about the smell environment in terms of control and management – separation, deodorization, masking and scenting – but not about preserving and celebrating smells that people like.

But why do we fail to embrace the olfactory in our work as designers and city planners?  How can we design a better smellscape?

 

 

Introduction to Multi-sensory Design

Introduction to Multi-sensory Design

Environment, human perception and design hold in a broader spectrum of possibilities and we are ignoring it ― our focus has become too narrow due to a subconscious effect: the dominance of vision. 

Vision is the protagonist, taking up half of our brain's resources to process information. It's how we have always apprehended major threats, food supplies, and reproductive opportunity, placing our eyes as a principal way to collect data and ultimately, as the "most important" sense.  

But what happens with the other senses?