Teaching Kansei: Visual, Verbal and Sensory Communication

Our knowledge of the world comes to us through sensory channels. We sense light or dark; hot or cold; and pleasure or pain. This is how we understand and interpret our environment. From birth we learn what these sensory experiences mean and how society expects us to respond to them. This sensory language is highly contextual and inherently dynamic. However, the traditional methods of visual and verbal communication are often very specific and concrete. It is when we combine sensory language, visual language, and verbal language that we can create unique Kansei experiences. Designers are taught how to create visual and verbal messages, however, little if any time is spent teaching them to create sensory messages. Sensory language can utilize internal and external human senses such as vestibular movement, proprioception, the auditory system, or the olfactory system of the human body. As technology allows us to create more elaborate user experiences, a lack of attention to what a user senses ma;y result in unintended or contradictory messages between the sensory channels of the body and the traditional channels of visual and verbal communication. As such, human senses are an important way of communicating the concepts of Kansei. Design students can learn to include Kansei concepts in their work by introducing them to theories of sensory integration, learning styles, and brain-based intelligences. The integration of these concepts into a traditional design studio will be discussed along with specific student examples from such a course.