Digital and physical experience are merging – Electroencephalogrphy and synesthetic feedback

Digital and Physical Experience

Line between the digital and physical experience is getting blurred gradually, and having disruptive impact across the industry. Technology like AI, Blockchain and IOT are staging new opportunities for companies to meet customer’s expectations.

Marketing strategy has changed; companies are reading brain activities of the users and working on digital experience that imitate as physical experience.

Electroencephalography EEG is used to captures the brain activities, to know what users want by reading their conscious and subconscious actions. To read more on Electroencephalography read my last article “How Electroencephalography can be used in UX Design?”

What is synesthesia?

We rely on 5 senses of touch, taste, smell, sight and hear to let us know what’s happening around. For some people sense can get mixed. It’s neurological condition of mixed sensation called synesthesia.

What is Synesthetic feedback?

A person with synesthesia can see color of the sound. A color can cause them hear sound or a person can physically see the music as shape. This is called synesthesia blending of the senses or Synesthetic feedback for UX design.

Visual synesthetic feedback on piano playing in a psychological experiment

How Synesthetic feedback can be used in UX design?

These subtle neurological loopholes are blurring the line between physical and digital experience. Hearing or reading a word can stimulate the different sensation of taste in a person. For example just imagine.

  • A Mcdonald burger image brings its taste in mouth.
  • A pop up of a sea image evoke the sensation of seashore and taste of coconut water.
  • A picture of cappuccino brings an aroma of its divine taste in the mouth.
  • A cursor moving towards unsubscribe link evoke the feel of fire and pain that stop user from unsubscribing.

Conclusion

Synesthetic feedback is not far now, we can capture the brain activities using the Electroencephalography and find out the type of user emotion to understand what actually customer or user wants. Now, evoke the desire sensation in the user to buy the product or services by enhancing the user experience. Building 8, a Facebook research lab is working to decode this peculiar condition readable by user’s skin to enhance the user experience.

Synesthesia: The Science Behind Seeing Sounds & Tasting Color

Author: Gopal Juneja

A UX/UI enthusiast living in India Delhi having 18+ years of industry experience to use in beautiful design and handsome front end coding.

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