ABSTRACT
In the context of the experience economy, everything from city streets to virtual interfaces are increasingly designed to appeal to all the senses. Appeals to the more-than-visual senses have become an avenue for curating atmospheres designed to resonate with consumers amidst the ongoing hyper-visuality of modern life. This does not mean that designers and marketers have abandoned eye appeal; rather, they increasingly play to the other(ed) senses in a bid to offer more immersive and engaging experiences—opting instead, in other words, for “sense appeal.” This chapter situates sensory ethnography as an ideal method for exploring the lived experience of sensory design. Drawing from research in a trio of increasingly curated atmospheres (in the casino, the spa, and the augmented city), it argues that sensory ethnography offers us critical purchase on the emergent constellation of sensory–spatial relations that at once complicate and enrich the experience of sensory design.
