Designing food experiences: A multisensory approach

Food experiences extend beyond the eating of food. They may involve fantasizing about food, perceiving the venue where you buy or consume it, seeing or smelling the food from a distance, touching its package or container, the tools you use to prepare and cook, the cutlery you use to eat, the way you dispose of the leftovers, and so on. In each of these stages, multiple sensory impressions conveyed by the senses of touch, audition, smell, vision, and taste contribute to the overall experience. This chapter presents a structured design approach in which all sensory modalities are aligned to contribute to the same product expression over multiple stages of consumer interactions. The approach is illustrated through a project aiming to enhance the experience of homemade cooking while using a kitchen appliance.