TURKISH ONLINE JOURNAL OF DESIGN ART AND COMMUNICATION, vol.8, no.3, pp.537-550, 2018 (ESCI)
People are equipped with sensory systems that enable them to communicate with their surroundings and products. User-product interaction has a multi-sensory nature that includes vision, touch, kinesthetic, audition, smell and taste. Each sensory system is simultaneously active during an interaction. However, the role of other sensory qualities besides visual in product interactions and their contribution to the product experience are often overlooked. By taking multisensory nature of interaction into consideration, this study examines the importance of the senses, the specific roles of different sensory information and their interrelationships. Field research aimed at collecting users' appraisals of product interactions by senses has been shaped as a chain of methods based on three different research methods (observation and shadowing, post-questionnaire and in-depth interview).The study in which two electric small household appliances (tea maker and vacuum cleaner) were used as example product, was conducted with the participation of 12 users. According to the results of the questionnaire focusing on the importance of the senses during interactions, sensory dominance varies depending on the type of product, the phases of product use, and the tasks performed during these phases. The participants' statements collected from observation and shadowing of product usage and follow-up interview stages were content analyzed. As a result of the analysis, it was presented what the appraisal criteria for each type of sensory information are, how these criteria vary according to different senses, how the relationship between different type of sensory information is appraised.