There exist many ways to use an object outside of its designed function. Chairs were made for sitting; however, people routinely use them to reach things from high places. The invention of the micro-plane (a cooking appliance that is used to grate food) was discovered because of the unintended use of a Wood File. Products everywhere exist to service one function but can serve other purposes they were not designed for. This is not the result of bad design, but of the underlying communication that occurs between a user and a product every time they are interacting. This communication is due to a lot of factors, one of which being sensory communication. A user's interpretation of the sensory aspects of a product influence how they believe said product can and should be used. This misalignment is due to a lack of consideration for sensory experiences and the communication a user is having with a product. This graduation project attempts to develop a method that can be used to generate product ideas that have a more coherent and aligned form, experience, and function because they will lead to innovative designs with stronger emotional connections between the user and the product.

The method that ends up being developed uses the areas of multi-sensory design and prototyping to create a process that allows designers to capitalize on unintended use within products to discover new product directions. The Multi-sensory Unintended Object Method (MsUOM) focuses on user interviews to collect multi-sensory information surrounding two designed objects. This multi-sensory information will be used to combine those designed objects into one prototype. With this prototype, designers will see how users interpret its functionality based on the form and their interaction with it. This leaves the designer with the newly designed object with a form, multiple perceived functions, and a multi-sensory understanding of the user experience. The method gives designers the tools to enter the traditional design process equipped with the knowledge to develop a product with an intuitive experience inspired by the prototype developed through the Multi-sensory Unintended Object Method (MsUOM).

Through a user focused evaluation, the Multi-sensory Unintended Object Method is in a state where it is viable to use and will lead designers to discovering product spaces where their designed object exists with innovative functionality possibilities and strong sensory focuses that inform a consistent and unique form and experience.

The method bodes well for the future of designed objects, as it will generate product ideas that have form, function, and experience aligned and embedded in their development; while also relaying to designers the importance of the user relationship with a product without sacrificing innovation within design.