We recently conducted a tasting at UX Week and, as always, had a blast. My favorite part of tastings is to watch a face take a free-wheeling, hands in the air ride up and down a 5g piece of TCHO. Rarely are there words to describe the experience.

Enter Laura Seargeant Richardson, Director Design Strategy and Research, M3 Design.

Transcribed notes from her feedback cards:

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A (Chocolatey)
Color: yellow
Sound: harmony & discord
Taste: orange
Texture:
Shape: too square
Bite Material Hardness
Bite Material Thickness - fit oral cavity well
Visual:
Temperature:
Emotion over time: in this area she drew a line that had one large dip at the beginning and two smaller dips at the end.

As an expert on art and science of measuring emotion (I spoke last year) and also sensorial design, I closed my eyes to provide the continuum of my expression over time. This is an incredibly time based product. Interestingly, after I drew my line, the speaker said the founder described it as a roller coaster. Indeed.

B (Fruity)
Color: pink
Sound:
Taste: rose
Texture:
Shape: round & full
Hardness:
Thickness: same
Visual:
Temperature:
Emotion over time: in this area she drew a steady and straight line all the way until the end where it dips and then returns straight.

This rose steadily and kept plateauing, but almost always more positively.

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Thank you, Laura, for your thoughtful description; and thank you to all Beta tasters for your “Oooh, wait, oh now it tastes different, whoa, yum!” I’m inspired to take photos of tasting faces at the next event. Video to follow shortly.