How can we use senses to design engaging and valuable human experiences?

We developed a consulting tool to help designers and clients better incorporate sensory design into their projects. We first identified trends in the experience economy by analyzing brands that are engaging senses successfully, and documented the myriad positive impacts of engaging the various senses on the human and brand experience. We used this insight to create a new consulting tool focused on understanding and incorporating sensory design into our work. We tested and refined this consulting tool among internal teams, ultimately arriving at a process that can help clients engage with how experiences are perceived through the senses.

The framework we established evaluates the senses at the human, client, and organizational levels. At the human level, we explore how senses and emotion influence perception and behavior within a space. At the client level, we investigate how clients can better integrate the senses into experiences for their audiences. At the organization level, we examine how we, as experience designers, can thoughtfully integrate sensory details into our work. Our goals are to help designers understand the human need for design that engages the senses, conduct productive conversations with clients to learn how they think about senses in their experiences, and discern how to apply senses into our work to design successful sensory experiences.