Seeing Senses 📚 Announcing the new book
👀 What do you smell, taste and hear at first sight?
What would you smell, taste and hear?
Take a look at the picture above. From first sight alone, can you guess what each of these scents might smell like, the opening notes of music on each record, or the mouthfeel when you drink from each water bottle?
You might have imagined inhaling the scent, felt a physical tickle on your tongue, or heard each sound play in your head. I suggest you could also describe what each scent would sound like, or what the music on each record would taste like.
Your amazing brain makes these smelly, fizzy, noisy connections.
Which is your most important sense?
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Answer _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
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You’re an exceptional readership. Many of you work and design with the senses or are in a field where they play a significant role. More of you than the average will likely have answered smell or sound. I imagine Thomas might have said ‘time’ (chronoception is one of the senses beyond the ‘big five’).
Would it surprise you that 88% of people rated sight as their most valuable sense? Hearing was ranked second in the survey but was rated as significantly less valuable than vision. Smell, taste and touch fell far behind (01).
Without smell.
Yet, we underestimate how important our sense of smell is to our psychological well-being and health. Professor Barry Smith says that when it’s suddenly lost, people discover how important it is to their ‘knowledge and emotional connection to the world around them, and themselves’ (02).
Beyond a world designed for sight.
While over 80% of brand communications are estimated to be designed for sight alone, less than half of our brain is involved in processing what we see (03).
Sight indexes our memories.
What we see reminds us of experiences we’ve had before. If there are no memories to connect to, what we’re looking at will likely feel flat—like a movie without a soundtrack, a cake without sugar, or a browser without the internet. “You had to be there…” Compare how different it feels to look at a friend’s holiday photos with the flood of sense memories you get when you look at your own.
Our memories are multi-sensory because our senses work and wire together. The information from the sounds, sights, smells and feels that we’re simultaneously bombarded with every day merge. Then super-additivity gives them a boost.
In other words, sight is a super-connector.
Sight links our extensive network of sense memories. If there’s no memory to reference, it will likely feel flat.
I propose that our sixth sense is our ability to see the senses.
📚 New book 👀 Seeing Senses
This is the title of the new book I’m currently writing (I’m working on two books).
It’s reached the stage where I can start sharing sneak peaks of the content with you. The book’s inspired by what I’ve learned from the mass participation multi-sensory experiments I’ve run for the last 12 years.
The book explores how sight is a super-connector for the senses. There are nine interconnected chapters, each with a highly practical takeaway for businesses, designers and consumers.
Scroll down to below the paywall for the chapter titles and outcomes.
I’ll be sharing content and updates with paid subscribers as the book develops.
News
🎓 Course patron
I’m delighted to be the course patron for the new Graphic Design Masters at the Arts University Bournemouth (AUB). The course includes modules on psychology and cognition, and sensory design.
🧠 Neuroscience
I’m studying a neuroscience class at Birkbeck University. When I signed up, I had no idea that I’d find myself on the pathway to a PhD by publication.
Work with me
🎤 Book me to speak at your event
Talks are packed with audience games, experiments and demonstrations. These bring the science of Seeing Senses to life.
🚀Engage your team with a masterclass
While much of my time is allocated to writing, I have availability for a couple of masterclasses each month starting from May.
Reply to this email or get in touch here.