designing scent for humans

When designing with scents human experience has to sit at the centre, because with scent, the body is the medium for the storytelling.

When you encounter a scent, odour molecules bind to olfactory receptors in the nose, which fire a signal directly to the olfactory cortex. And the olfactory cortex is a part of the limbic system, the part of the brain that governs emotion, instinct, and the formation and retrieval of memory. Sense of smell is directly associated with our instinctive behaviours. This is why a smell can pull back a moment from decades ago with a force that a photograph never quite could.

For design it is intrinsic, using scent breaks the digital barrier and blends it with the real world. Designing for humans and not for the coherence of the digital story will yield the most impactful experiences.

We see this most clearly in VR training. In high-pressure environments, we use scent to raise the sensory load deliberately, so that trainees rehearse not in a sterile room but in conditions that echo the real situations. That added sensory pressure builds familiarity with overstimulation. The result is better protocol retrieval, and faster, more confident responses in the moments where every second decides the outcome.

Design for the technology, and you get a feature. Design for the human, and you change what a person is capable of when it matters most.

Keep your noses sharp,

Anastasia