Sensory design aims to establish an overall diagnosis of the sensory perceptions

Sense

Senses are physiological capacities of organisms that provide inputs for perception. The senses and their operation, classification, and theory are overlapping topics studied by a variety of fields, most notably neuroscience, cognitive psychology , and philosophy of perception...

 of a product, and define appropriate means to design

Design

Design as a noun informally refers to a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system while “to design” refers to making this plan...

 or redesign it on that basis. It involves an observation of the diverse and varying situations in which a given product or object is used in order to measure the users' overall opinion of the product, its positive and negative aspects in terms of tactility

Somatosensory system

The somatosensory system is a diverse sensory system composed of the receptors and processing centres to produce the sensory modalities such as touch, temperature, proprioception , and nociception . The sensory receptors cover the skin and epithelia, skeletal muscles, bones and joints, internal...

, appearance

Visual perception

Visual perception is the ability to interpret information and surroundings from the effects of visible light reaching the eye. The resulting perception is also known as eyesight, sight, or vision...

, sound

Hearing (sense)

Hearing is the ability to perceive sound by detecting vibrations through an organ such as the ear. It is one of the traditional five senses...

 and so on.

Sensory assessment aims to quantify and describe, in a systematic manner, all human perceptions when confronted with a product or an object using techniques initially developed for the food industry

Food industry

The food production is a complex, global collective of diverse businesses that together supply much of the food energy consumed by the world population...

. Contrary to laboratory analysis, the perception of a product is carried out by a panel of trained testers

Psychological testing

Psychological testing is a field characterized by the use of samples of behavior in order to assess psychological construct, such as cognitive and emotional functioning, about a given individual. The technical term for the science behind psychological testing is psychometrics...

 comparing similar products.

The result allows researchers to establish a list of specifications and to set out a precise and quantified requirement. These are applied to material

Material

Material is anything made of matter, constituted of one or more substances. Wood, cement, hydrogen, air and water are all examples of materials. Sometimes the term "material" is used more narrowly to refer to substances or components with certain physical properties that are used as inputs to...

s and objects using various criteria:

• touch
  Somatosensory system
  The somatosensory system is a diverse sensory system composed of the receptors and processing centres to produce the sensory modalities such as touch, temperature, proprioception , and nociception . The sensory receptors cover the skin and epithelia, skeletal muscles, bones and joints, internal...
  
  , finish, colour, accessories and layout;
• sound
  Sound
  Sound is a mechanical wave that is an oscillation of pressure transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a level sufficiently strong to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing by such vibrations.-Propagation of...
  
  s and movement
  Movement
  -In society and the arts:* Social movement, a coordinated group action focused on a political or social issue* Political movement, a coordinated group action focused on a political issue* Art movement, a tendency or style in art followed by a group of artists...
  
  s made when a product is handled;
• smell
  Olfaction
  Olfaction is the sense of smell. This sense is mediated by specialized sensory cells of the nasal cavity of vertebrates, and, by analogy, sensory cells of the antennae of invertebrates...
  
  ;
• temperature
  Temperature
  Temperature is a physical property of matter that quantitatively expresses the common notions of hot and cold. Objects of low temperature are cold, while various degrees of higher temperatures are referred to as warm or hot...
  
   and heat diffusion
  Heat equation
  The heat equation is an important partial differential equation which describes the distribution of heat in a given region over time...
  
  ;
• luminosity
  Luminosity
  Luminosity is a measurement of brightness.-In photometry and color imaging:In photometry, luminosity is sometimes incorrectly used to refer to luminance, which is the density of luminous intensity in a given direction. The SI unit for luminance is candela per square metre.The luminosity function...
  
  .

In the transport

Transport

Transport or transportation is the movement of people, cattle, animals and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, rail, road, water, cable, pipeline, and space. The field can be divided into infrastructure, vehicles, and operations...

 sphere, these two branches of sensory analysis

Sensory analysis

Sensory analysis is a scientific discipline that applies principles of experimental design and statistical analysis to the use of human senses for the purposes of evaluating consumer products. The discipline requires panels of human assessors, on whom the products are tested, and recording the...

 translate into sometimes minor enhancements to the design for a vehicle interior, information system, or station environment to smooth some of the rougher edges of the travel experience.

See also

• Automotive design
  Automotive design
  Automotive design is the profession involved in the development of the appearance, and to some extent the ergonomics, of motor vehicles or more specifically road vehicles. This most commonly refers to automobiles but also refers to motorcycles, trucks, buses, coaches, and vans...
  
  
• Product design
  Product design
  -Introduction:Product design is the process of creating a new product to be sold by a business or enterprise to its customers. It is concerned with the efficient and effective generation and development of ideas through a process that leads to new products.Product designers conceptualize and...
  
  
• Interaction design
  Interaction design
  In design, human–computer interaction, and software development, interaction design, often abbreviated IxD, is "the practice of designing interactive digital products, environments, systems, and services." Like many other design fields interaction design also has an interest in form but its main...
  
  
• Communication design
  Communication design
  Communication design is a mixed discipline between design and information-development which is concerned with how media intermission such as printed, crafted, electronic media or presentations communicate with people...
  
  
• Creative engineering
  Creativity
  Creativity refers to the phenomenon whereby a person creates something new that has some kind of value. What counts as "new" may be in reference to the individual creator, or to the society or domain within which the novelty occurs...
  
  
• Designer
  Designer
  A designer is a person who designs. More formally, a designer is an agent that "specifies the structural properties of a design object". In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, such as consumer products, processes, laws, games and graphics, is referred to as a...
  
  
• Environmental design
  Environmental design
  Environmental design is the process of addressing surrounding environmental parameters when devising plans, programs, policies, buildings, or products...
  
  
• Experience design
  Experience design
  Experience design is the practice of designing products, processes, services, events, and environments with a focus placed on the quality of the user experience and culturally relevant solutions, with less emphasis placed on increasing and improving functionality of the design...
  
  
• Product development
• WikID
  WikID
  ' is a semantic industrial design engineering reference wiki, originally started in 2008 by the at the . WikID is a design tool, offering information in a compact manner tailored to its user group, being the Industrial Designers....
  
  
• RCP Design Global
  RCP Design Global
  RCP Design Global or RCP is an independent design agency based in Tours and Paris fonded by Régine Charvet-Pello in . RCP is predominantly based in the transport and mobility design, and specialises in urban transport, High-speed rail, interiors, public spaces and street furniture...