Materials Experience
Chapter 2. Sensing Materials: Exploring the Building Blocks for Experiential Design
Description:... Materials play an important role in the sensory experience of products. The visual impression (color, gloss, pattern), tactual feeling (warmth, texture, weight), the sound (acoustical properties), smell and – when relevant - taste all depend on the material. Each material has a set of inherent material properties that affect a user's experience. Even though the senses are usually employed simultaneously, visual experience is prominent in material experience, partly because it is often the first modality to observe material characteristics. Nevertheless, the sensitivity for the other senses should not be neglected. Whereas vision provides users with the first impressions, the specific characteristics perceived through other modalities help in shaping the overall experience. The multisensory experience of warmth is used as an example to illustrate the individual impacts related to the use of different sensory modalities and to discuss how the senses work together in creating experiences that are coherent or involve incongruities.
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