A large part of what distinguishes an innovative development team from other software developers is probably their visual approach to things, their creativity and imagination. Many of you who read this are, or have been involved in various aspects of software design and development and you must have had some experience of the importance of creativity. Most people seem to think that creativity requires a lot of imagination. Although the two have a lot in common, creativity comes more from the way you observe your environment and how you apply what you observe in various ways. Creativity is also not the exclusive domain of fine arts - creativity plays an important role in all aspects of life.
The ability to observe and experience depends on how well you "handle" your senses. Although most of us are all well equipped to experience our environment, the sensory mechanisms we use often deceive us. One way to become more creative, in other words more aware of how to compensate (or exploit!) the limits of our senses, is to exaggerate or "stretch" the functions normally performed by each of the five senses.
I was interested in finding out how sensitivity to cross-sensory perception (also called synaesthesia) affects the way people work and live. The specific purpose of this survey was twofold:
This article presents the results of my informal research. I have thoroughly enjoyed all the creative, whacky answers I got and I hope other people also find it an interesting exercise.
I wanted to test two hypotheses:
My analysis shows a high probability that both hypotheses are correct. Of the 14 questions, only 1 showed a variance too high to derive a significant trend ("Describe the difference in smell between DOS and Windows"). But even here there was a general feeling that "DOS is something like a medieval knight in modern times: strong, useful and trustworthy, but old and out of date and trying to keep the past alive". Windows is "like some modern houses: pretentious, antiseptic ('smells like Dettol'), but with unreliable plumbing and not always very functional"!
There were a few surprises that would have been impossible to predict in any other way, for example, most people felt that "good Computer-based Training is blue", the same colour as happiness! What was not surprising was that almost everybody felt that error messages and bad animations were distasteful in some way.
It was obvious to me that we did not have any true "synaesthetes" - people with "sensory short circuits" in their brains - among us. All of the responses were influenced in some way by past experience and learning. This is OK of course, because this simply confirms that creativity is often a behaviour that can be learned.
True synaesthetes get such associations involuntarily and there is usually no common denominator between people - in other words a short circuit in the brain will cause one synaesthete to see a Mozart symphony in rainbow colours, while the next will smell the same symphony as floral incense. It is believed that some measure of beneficial synaesthesia can be developed by some people (something like the ability to see those hidden 3D pictures). However, synaesthesia is often a curse to people who are born with it. If it is totally involuntary and uncontrollable, they find it impossible to make sense out of stimuli in the environment - something like "sensory dyslexia".
The results on each of the questions follow. Where there was a clear majority, I give only the highest percentage. Where there was no significant majority, I give the split ratings:
| QUESTION | FINDING | Score |
| What colour is happiness? | Blue Green |
38 23 |
| What does a ray of sunshine smell like? | Nature-type
of smells Food-type smells |
50 25 |
| What does red taste like? | Burning, biting tastes | 50 |
| How do you describe the texture of yellow? | Smooth & soft, sometimes bumpy | 50 |
| What does a peach sound like? | Soft "Squishy" |
31 23 |
| What colour is a good CBT lesson? | Blue Colour blend, rainbow |
46 31 |
| What does error feedback taste like? | Burning,
biting tastes Bitter Sour |
38 23 23 |
| How would you describe the texture of a software development team? | Rippling, rough and spiky | 54 |
| How does a poor animation smell? | Bad,
sour Sharp, unpleasant |
67 33 |
| How does software maintenance sound? | Discordant Monotonous humming Ringing sound |
33 25 25 |
| What kind of music does Microsoft Windows make? | Simple Musical |
64 36 |
| What does good on-line Help feel like (texture, shape)? | Comfortable - smooth, fluffy & warm | 58 |
| What does illegible text on a screen sound like? | Distortion, static | 40 |
| Describe the difference in smell between DOS and Windows | No result - just very strong opinions! |
I would encourage all application designers and developers to cultivate this kind of lateral thinking. Whether you are an artist or a programmer or anything else - everybody can benefit from turning a question or a problem inside out and upside down by asking, for example "what does it smell like" or "what is the texture of ...". Using cross-sensory perception is simply another way of using your powerful right-brain functions and breaking the mould of mediocrity!
So, go forth and stretch those sensory muscles and build a powerful imagination!
Thanks again to all those who participated in this bit of serious fun!
Jacque