Smelling Stories (2023)

Project title: Smelling Stories (2023)

Target audience: Primary schools (4-8 y/olds)

Test sessions with children: Visio Amsterdam

Responsibilities: Preliminary research, concept development, developing prototypes, product and graphic design, authoring stories and illustrations, selecting scents, test sessions with children

Made possible by: Creative Industries Fund NL, Stichting Stokroos and Fonds Kwadraat

Smell support: International Flavors & Fragrances

Learning to connect language to what we experience is an important part of a child's development. In the Dutch language there are many words that help us express what we see. At the same time only a few words exist to describe what we smell. For example, there is only one official smell word in the Dutch dictionary, namely: ‘muf’ (musty in English). In order to enrich language, stimulate reading pleasure and promote equality between children with and without visual impairment, the design research project 'Smelling Stories' was created. In this reading experience, children not only use their ears to listen to the story and their eyes to look at the pictures, but they also use their nose to smell the story. The smells help children to imagine and anticipate the storyline.

Digital children's books are often fast paced and with a high amount of stimuli. Research shows that children become overstimulated when the interactive elements of these books do not add any content to a story. This was deliberately prevented in the design for the 'Smelling Stories'. The smells have been given their own role in the storyline. This ensures that children stay with the story with focused focus and attention. The iPad is only used for practical reasons, making it a digital reading experience that feels like an analogue experience.

The sensory stimuli are the territory of the children in a reading experience; they give them more information than the text alone. It is important that these stimuli are not there to merely entertain, but that they provide new information within the story. This teaches children to read more attentively and realizes that, in the case of the 'Smelling Stories', the presence of the smells has a reason. It gives children ownership during reading and shows that their interpretation matters.