Formidable bracelet, beautiful lantern: Studying multi-sensory user experience from a semiotic perspective

Abstract

We live in an experience economy. The more saturated the global market becomes with products offering the same functions, services and quality, the more companies are wanting to appeal to the intangible needs and desires of consumers. To achieve this, designers and researchers are turning inwards to investigate the psychological factors affecting peoples' relationships and reactions towards design properties. For this reason, design semantics studies on user experience have been advancing all the time. Much emphasis has been placed on visual product experience, as well as the relationship between brand perception and user experience. These are important steps, which are referred to in this paper. However, experience is multi-sensory, that is, our mental impressions and representations are constantly stimulated and informed by what we see, hear, taste, smell and touch. This paper explains user experience from a semiotic perspective. It then introduces a cognitive semiotic model, the C-model, of user experience and describes its application in an empirical study. Findings of the study suggest that while people favor what is perceived through sight in contrast to what is perceived through touch. However, the sense of touch inspires imaginative interpretation of form and associations with visual properties such as color. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.