ASSESSING THE EMOTIONAL, PHYSICAL, AND COGNITIVE IMPACT OF MULTISENSORY DESIGN EXHIBITS AT DUTCH DESIGN WEEK
Year: 2024
Editor: Grierson, Hilary; Bohemia, Erik; Buck, Lyndon
Author: Howell, Bryan F.; Graff, Holly M.; Swenson, Clara G.; Seegmiller, Davis H.; Houghton, Sophie
Series: E&PDE
Institution: Brigham Young University, United States of America
Page(s): 241 - 246
DOI number: 10.35199/EPDE.2024.41
ISBN: 978-1-912254-200
ISSN: 3005-4753
Abstract
Design students face the challenge of presenting their work at university events with little training in designing exhibits. To help design students successfully communicate their projects, they would benefit from studying design exhibits that enhance viewer engagement. Human-centred design is often multisensory and appeals to human emotions, thought patterns, and relatable behaviours. However, ""the ""lower"" senses of smell, taste, and touch are rarely taught in school curricula. This research combines multisensory engagement of six human senses, sight, smell, taste, sound, touch, and spatial awareness, with facets of emotional, cognitive, and physical (ECP) behaviour to explore how sensory stimuli impact a visitor's experience with exhibits. Fourteen undergraduate design students and one design instructor collected sensory and ECP data on 41 exhibits while attending the 2023 Dutch Design Week. Emotionally, the senses of taste and smell had the highest impact on the visitor. Cognitively, the senses of taste and touch scored highest. Physically, the sound, spatial, and smell senses had the most impact. Sight had the lowest variance in ECP scores, while taste had the greatest. Results verify that as the number of senses increases, so does the exhibit impact. Studying exhibit design engagement caused two student researchers to redesign their end-of-year presentations to include more senses. Design exhibitions engage visitors visually, limiting audience proximity and engagement with display content. Exhibits designed to incorporate smell, taste, touch, sound, spatial awareness, and sight, in that order, can transform casually observing visitors into engaged participants consuming an exhibit's content rather than merely viewing it.
Keywords: Design Student Exhibits, Exhibit Education, Design Presentation Methods, Dutch Design Week Exhibits