Why we want to look over the edge of the screen and use it with all our senses
What is the ideal interaction in a world where complex technologies merge with our everyday life? One of the answers to this question is: a design for all senses – or multi-sensory design
Let’s try to remember a particularly intense experience. How did it feel? What impressions can we remember?
We evaluate all experiences we have based on our five senses. See, smell, hear, feel, and taste. Every time we enter a room, our brain is supplied with information. What does the room look like? What do we hear? What smells do we perceive? Is it cold or warm? Our senses help us understand the places where we move.
In times of digital interactions, the visual is usually in the foreground. This means that the other senses take a back seat or are ignored at all. The designer Jinsop Lee presented a graph at a TED Talk seven years ago to evaluate experiences based on our five senses. He calls this the “5-Senses-Graph”. Based on this analysis tool and Lee’s statement, it would be sufficient to add a visual sense of interaction while interacting with a product or service to make the difference between a good product and a great product. We, the Alphagate team, are also working on creating “sensible” extensions to the HMI controls.
The retail and hospitality industry has long integrated multisensory elements into their business model to increase the well-being of visitors. Factors such as volume, sound quality, room temperature, the way we can orient ourselves within a building, and even smells play a major role. The better the visitor feels in his environment, the higher his willingness to consume – so the idea.
In industry, however, we face different requirements every day, such as those in retail. The target group which is addressed, as well as their interests, could not be more different in the respective situations. In hospitality and retail, the target audience pursues personal interests and consumer desires. While the highest concentration and hectic working conditions prevail in the industrial environment.
We at Alphagate enable the user a simple, pleasant, and joyful operation in all working conditions. Even if this is not always easy in the industrial work environment, we are not afraid to find ways to appeal to all the senses. For a workplace of the future that is in our nature.
This article was written by
Katerina Sedlackova UX/UI Design
July 16, 2020
