Sensory Metrology serving Design

The latest studies concerning the product design experience have brought interesting news not only related to the design environment. Innovative fields of studies concerning the link between the engineering knowledge and the design creativity have been highlighted. Emotional Design, Kansei Engineering, Multisensory Design, are just few of those disciplines that are investigating the capabilities to use the engineering tools to involve the senses of the user by the application of certain features on products. The surface treatment of material it’s a way to reach this goal, as it is capable of transforming the user experience into a deep sensory interaction. The developing tool that could give a help in this direction is the Sensory Metrology. Tool derives from the Sensorial Analysis usually used in the food and cosmetic companies. Interesting results have been obtained by the involvement of untrained users and Napping® tests. This work gives a demonstration of how this new method could be applied and how could be easily readable with maps and schemes. The soft qualities of materials could be translated and read in a technical and unified way. Furthermore this will be an opportunity to propose new development scenarios on the control of users' preferences.