White Lies: Visual Tactile Sensory Incongruity and Surprise Within the Product-Skin

Abstract

White Lies presents the design of a collection of everyday objects that challenge the one-line(r) nature of surprise; where the surprise is elicited by visual-tactile sensory incongruity within the product-skin. Designers are able to influence a user’s experience of a product by creating congruent or incongruent sensory information within the expressive outer layer or skin of a product. If the designer chooses to create incongruent sensory information surprise can be elicited. Based on the analysis of precedents and theoretical research it is evident that surprise elicited by visual-tactile incongruity is typically an immediate one-time experience (Desmet, 2004; Ludden, 2008), which occurs as soon as a product is touched (Ludden, 2008). Through the analysis of preedents and theoretical research it also became evident that few designers appear to consider the surprise experience beyond the first encounter with a product, when designing visual-tactile incongruity. This one-off nature of surprise elicited by visual-tactile incongruity is characterized as the one-liner for this study. Surprise elicited by products can be beneficial because the experience is pleasant, interesting, amusing or lets a user experience something new, but looses its impact overtime, ultimately becoming uninteresting, potentially disappointing or even irritating in the long-term. In the case of the one-liner the surprise is not only an immediate singular experience, the element of surprise appears to have no tangible or meaningful purpose or function (aside from eliciting the surprise), and has no potential to change over time. Rather than focusing the investigation on the long-term effects of a single surprise elicited by a product, this thesis investigates (through the design of objects) how designers can challenge the one-liner, and suggests strategies to produce multiple elements of surprise in products possessing visual-tactile incongruity to extend the surprise experience.In order to investigate surprise beyond the one-liner through the medium of product-skin, a deeper understanding of the link between how products elicit surprise through visual-tactile incongruity and how designers create visual-tactile incongruity was required, in conjunction to defining the substance of the product-skin for the thesis. This was achieved though an in depth theoretical context analysis of design precedents and theoretical research, culminating in a theoretical framework and design methodology. Through the research two distinct types of incongruity within the product-skin were identified, where the product’s expression misleads about either the feel or behavioural quality of the product. Using the design methodology to initiate the design experiments three strategies to create a secondary element of surprise within a product possessing visual-tactile incongruity were identified. The first strategy illustrated through the design of a cup and saucer involved designing a hidden functional component, the second strategy illustrated through the design of a table involved creating secondary hidden tactile quality and the third strategy illustrated through the design of second table, and a cup and saucer set involved combining the two incongruity types within a single object. Through the design experiments it also became apparent that two more strategies could be indentified by investigating the relationships between sets of objects and the relationships between related objects further elements of surprise could be created suggesting a fourth and fifth design strategy, this is illustrated through the presentation of a cup and saucer set with one of the tables. By challenging the one-liner this thesis proposes that designers will be able to create more meaningful multi-layered surprise experiences within products possessing visual-tactile incongruity, as a result the beneficial aspects of eliciting surprise through interactions with products will have the potential to be prolonged.