Cognitive Design

One of my favorite challenges to give cognitive design students  involves a bar of soap. They are tasked with redesigning soap so that we can have the viscerally rich experience of the bar but the convenience and zero mess of liquid soap.  Part of the project involves trying to get inside the head of soap users and understanding the mental models, emotions and sensory aspects of the experience and designing to achieve a specific mental state.  I don’t give much direction just turn them lose to see how they naturally approach cognitive design.

This problem is harder than it may seem and I am always on the look for excellent solutions to share with students.  I just found an exceptional solution that has been taken from concept to product by the multi-disciplinary designer, Stephen Cascio.

The solution involves pressing a metal cap into a bar of soap and then attaching it to a stylized soap holder that contains a hidden magnet.  There are six designs - Bloom, Humm (shown), Lean, Petal, Sunrise and Swing but there is no reason to stop there.

I asked Stephen to comment on his work from a cognitive design standpoint. Here is what he said:

“The feeling of a smooth shapely gliding bar soap being lathered between your hands create unique sensory emotions that contributes to the personal feeling of cleanliness, purity, teamwork to a pleasant personalized hand massage. It’s a feeling that can never be duplicated with liquid soap.  Washing your hands becomes a patiently timed event as you stir up your bar soap into a frenzy froth of creamy suds visually telling you, yes, let’s do this together… as the scent releases becoming even more fragrant. You’re right, this is feeling a bit on the sensual side, but who cares, they’re your hands and you deserve the attention you’ve always wanted. Please continue…

After reaching that embodied knowing point of soap usage, you magnetically put your bar soap back onto the sculpture that personally praises and adorns your bar soap. You then happily rinse away your efforts leaving your bar soap perfectly cantilevered over the sink to air dry. Such a beautiful human experience. What more can you ask from design and a simple bar of soap?”

Right on, or in his words “Cognitive Design That Raises The Bar”.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 at 6:03 pm and is filed under Examples. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.