Synesthesia

Choose this exercise

Purpose: Generate non-analytical metaphors for an abstract product or service to reveal overlooked physical qualities and emotional impressions.

Use it when: Use during early product discovery, user experience reviews, or design retrospectives when analytical talk has stalled or produced generic descriptions.

Skip it when: Skip during detailed quantitative evaluation, late-stage delivery sign-off, or when participants need concrete technical specifications rather than metaphoric prompts.

Group arrangement: Solo reflection followed by trios or quads, ending with whole-room observations.

Timing: Source states 15 to 45 minutes; 20 minutes fits structured subgroup rounds for up to 24 participants.

Materials and tools

• 1 index card or sheet of scratch paper per person
• 1 pen or marker per person
• 1 countdown timer for the facilitator
• 1 shared whiteboard or flip chart pad with markers

Before participants arrive

1. Write the focal topic clearly at the top of the shared room board (for example: 'Our Onboarding Workflow').
2. List the sensory prompts on the board: Sight, Sound, Smell, Taste, Touch, Temperature, Motion.
3. Ensure scratch paper and pens are available at every seat.

Say this to open

Most of our project work stays inside our heads, analyzing features on paper. For the next twenty minutes, we will inspect our topic using our physical senses instead. Your task is to pick at least one sense and describe how this topic feels, sounds, tastes, smells, or moves. Take it literally as a sensory metaphor. For instance, you might say, 'This interface tastes like cold black coffee and moves like wet sand.' Write whatever direct image comes to you.

How to run it

1. Introduce the topic and sensory prompts 3 minutes

   State the chosen topic and review the sensory options on the board. Explain that everyone will choose one primary sense to explore first, then add other senses if time permits. Clarify that metaphors can describe how the product currently feels or how it ought to feel.

2. Draft sensory descriptions individually 4 minutes

   Set a timer for four minutes. Participants write down at least two sensory sentences on their scratch paper in silence. If someone finishes early, prompt them to pick a contrasting sense like temperature or motion. Anyone may write notes privately without being required to read them aloud verbatim.

3. Share sensory images in small groups 8 minutes

   Divide participants into small groups of 3 or 4. Each person takes up to 90 seconds to share their sensory images. Listeners note down recurring impressions or striking contradictions on a group summary sheet. Remind groups that anyone may pass their turn or share just a single descriptive word.

4. Debrief and capture takeaways 5 minutes

   Bring the room together. Ask each small group to call out one sensory metaphor and what design trait it points to. Record these observations on the main board under two headings: Current State and Desired Direction. Close when time expires.

Debrief questions

• Which sensory description surprised you the most, and what real product issue does it point toward?
• Where did people have opposite sensory impressions of the same feature, and why?
• What is one concrete design change we could make to shift an unpleasant sensation into a positive one?

Finished output: A board list of sensory metaphors paired with specific product impressions and potential design adjustments.

Remote

Display the topic and sensory menu on a digital whiteboard or shared slide. Run the individual drafting step using local scratch paper. Create breakout rooms of 3 to 4 people for the 8-minute sharing step, having each room drop 1 or 2 striking sensory notes onto sticky notes on the main board. Return to the main room for the final 5-minute debrief.

Hybrid

Seat in-person participants in small tables of 3 or 4 and group remote participants into dedicated online breakout rooms. All groups post their chosen metaphors into a shared online canvas or document visible on the room projector. During the final debrief, alternate between an in-person table and an online group.

Access and participation choices

• Participants may choose any sense from the expanded list (touch, temperature, motion, sound, smell, taste, sight) that matches their comfort and lived sensory experience.
• Any participant may pass during subgroup sharing or post their sensory words anonymously on the board.

If the session gets stuck

Participants write conventional analytical feedback instead of sensory descriptions.

Intervene with a concrete prompt: Ask them what food the user experience tastes like, what instrument it sounds like, or what surface it feels like when rubbed.

One participant dominates the small group sharing time.

Instruct groups to designate a timekeeper and limit each speaker to 90 seconds before passing to the next person.

Terms used here

• Synesthesia: A perceptual condition where stimulation of one sense triggers an involuntary experience in another, used here as a creative metaphor method.