Product Categories Affected by Odorous Materials

A user‘s sensory perception, such as vision, touch, smell, sound and taste, are triggered when experiencing the materials of a product. A material's origin and authenticity, its freshness or staleness, its edibility or non-edibility, and the cleanliness or dirtiness of objects can be detected through smell. The sense of smell has also been proven to recall memories and elicit emotions. Therefore, odorous materials can trigger users' reactions to products. However, despite numerous studies on smells within the industrial design field, a holistic overview of product categories affected by odorous materials remains unavailable. This study categorises the products affected by odorous materials from product design smell description using a systematic literature review and thematic analysis. Four significant product categories affected by odorous materials, namely; 1) Travel & Sports, 2) Food-Related Products, 3) Specialized Items and 4) Wearables & Accessories were discovered. The findings for this study are visualised in an onion diagram to explain the connection between the product categories and smell experience from the odorous materials.