ANFA_2014_Sensory Design

1. Blue Sounds,
Black Smells
Upali Nanda, PhD, Assoc. AIA, EDAC
Ana Pinto-Alexander, RID, IIDA, EDAC
Carina Clark, EDAC, LEED AP BD+C

2. What we look at in Design . . .
. . . What we forget

3. Societies growth to visual

4. Senses in 360°
VISION
 1 Direction
 Far distance
TOUCH
 360°
 Small distance
SMELL
 360°
 Mid-long
distance
TASTE
 On contact
 Small distance
SOUND
 360°
 Far distance

6. The Sensory order in
Culture, Philosophy & Economics
Aristotle’s hierarchy based on
clarity, purity, development,
honor, enlightenment and
“animality”:
• The Human Senses
• Sight
• Hearing
• Smell
• The Animal Senses
• Taste
• Touch
(Synott, 1991 cited in Nanda, 2008)
Knowledge does not begin with the sensory
event at hand….[it] is forged by the connection,
or “linkage” of new sensory information to
previous sensory experiences… the mind is a
weave of old and new sensory data in a
network of connections or “links” called the
sensory order
(Hayek, 1996 in Nanda, 2008)
Frederick Hayek Connects Sensory Orders to
Market Economy

7. Sensory orders
Survey with 17 first year design
students
Nanda 2008

8. Sensory orders
Survey with 17 first year design
students
Nanda 2008

9. Smell 101
10,000 smells can be differentiated
The thought of smell is as powerful as smelling it
Ability to involuntary
recognize smells :
richer / deeper
emotions
Inability to
recognize smells: lack of
emotion
Clark, C. (2013)

10. SOUND
SMELL TOUCH
TASTE
Healthcare: Senses Overlooked

11. Smells of an ED
http://csclv.nevada.edu/csclv/index.cfm/facilitie
s/simulation-program-labs/
http://haicontroversies.blogspot.com/2011/10/h
and-hygiene-in-emergency-department.html
http://courtneyslaton.wordpress.com/2011/07/0
2/go-away-this-is-my-church-2/

12. Solving for Smell
ProblemSolution Investigation

13. Clark, C. (2013)

14. Smell Study Conclusion

15. Smell:: Emotion:: Memory“Associations” | “Expectancy”
Odor perception
through expectation

16. Sensory Connections
People process odors differently depending on the other
sensory inputs they receive. When a person looks at a
photograph of a rose while smelling rose oil, for example, she
rates the aroma as both more intense and more pleasant than
she does if she smells rose oil while looking at a picture of a
peanut.
http://www.apa.org/monitor/2011/02/scents.aspx

17. Sensory Cross Connections
http://www.visualinformation.info/understanding-the-phenomenon-of-synesthesia-infographic/

18. Crossmodal Research
Crossmodal Priming. Spatial Expectancy: Across Modalities. Fused Perceptions.

19. COLOR SOUND SMELL TEXTURES/
TEMPERAT
URE
EMOTION
S
RED
Consistently High Response
BLUE
GREEN
YELLOW
VIOLET Consistently Low and Varied
BLACK Extremely High/ Extremely Low; Consistent
ORANGE
WHITE
9 Beginning Design Students
10 Graduate Students
Crossmodal “Conception”

20. The World of Design
Loud Spaces; Cool/Warm Colors; Visual Noise
• Concurrence:
• Lighting, acoustics, sounds,
textures, smells
• Correspondence:
• Co-relation between the
sensory design elements.
Crossmodal priming.
• Coherence:
• Development of a
meaningful “experience”