The Anatomy of a Multi-Sensory Design Course: Happy Sound Object

Abstract

Abstract:Product experience encompasses all five sensory modalities through which information is received (Shifferstein and Desmet, 2008) therefore designing taking into account all the five senses is important. Besides, advances in technology make it easier to accomplish designing for five senses in many industries. On the other hand, particularly in the early years of undergraduate level industrial design education, sense of vision is often emphasized more compared to the other four senses. In order to underline the importance of the remaining senses, a unique studio course has been designed at Istanbul Medipol University, aiming second year industrial design students. In this particular studio course, in addition to their regular sketchbooks, students are expected to keep a dairy of sound, tactile, smell and taste. The course is designed in four modules and this paper elaborates on the details of Module I that focuses on the sense of hearing. Module I is interdisciplinary in the sense that a psychologist and a music composer/virtuoso have been invited to contribute to the classes so that designs can be treated at the visceral, behavioural and reflective levels (Norman, 2004) more profoundly. This paper aims to share the outcomes related to the 15 projects carried out during the course such that the advantages and the disadvantages of a multi-sensory design studio set up are revealed.

"Like Popcorn"

“…[43]), which looks at the use of established psychophysical approaches in beginning to unravel how multiple senses can contribute to more immersive and cohesive design. New research also shows how synesthetic and multisensory design approaches can be adopted for enhanced creativity [58], product design [81] and inclusive education [3].…”

Visual Autoethnography of Daily Sounds

“…Nykänen et al (2015) suggested that sound design is a conversation with sounding material, crucially dependent on listening informed by sketching to create sound. Soylu et al (2017) enriched sound design idea by creating happy sound objects through multisensory design, and Monache, Misdariis, and Özcan (2022) studied sound-driven design as a practice informed by technology and listening in the multisensory dimension of interaction. Wildevuur & van Dijk (2011) positioned sound design for social connectedness in healthcare, focusing on its functional aspects.…”