Multi-sensory research of taking Elevator Final Report

Elevator is the object that we use every day.  Most of people don't pay much attention on these activities that we do inside the elevator.  My experience is to focus on details such as auditory sense and sense of vision during the time when we take elevator.  This research aims to discover those details and emerges more sense of experience that we miss during this normal day route.  It focuses more on auditory because I believe that auditory is a sense of experience we ignore.  Then I will using some interesting ways to represent the results.

To complete this research, I found five participants who were happy to experience.  I recoded video with each of them when they took the elevator.  After the experience, I asked them questions to describe what they saw and heard by the time they took the elevator.  

In order to find out the feelings that be inside of the elevator, I prepared some audio clips which represented different music style and played to each participant to describe their experiences.  These audio clips include different sorts of music such as glum, upbeat, rouse, mystery and soft.  Each participant then picked the clips they found which appropriated to their experiences.   

The results illustrated two different aspects.  In the first aspect of visual sense, most participants mentioned about button on the panel, the light of button, the mirror inside the elevator, the door, and numbers that counted when reached to higher floor.  One participant also described other passengers in the elevator and the poster which displayed on the door.  

In another aspect of auditory sense, the participants noticed the sound of door closing, the mechanical noise from elevator, the sound of moving, and the bell ringing when the elevator reached to the certain floor.  Some participants even described the footsteps and the sound of breathing and the talks from other passengers.  

At the end of experiences, the participants got to choose music which represented their feelings.  Three participants chose upbeat music.  One chose soft music and one chose mystery music.  The following are their reasons why chose certain music:

Participant One who chose upbeat music: “something happy and upbeat, but not too catchy so it doesn't get stuck in my head”.

Participant Two who also chose upbeat music: “upbeat to keep me in a good mood”.

Participant Three who chose soft music: “cause the elevator is grey and I think classic can represent the of riding elevator the best”.

Participant Four picked soft music: “no reason”.

Participant Five who picked mystery music: “it is so quiet in the elevator, I feel pretty low and I have no idea where it will take me”.

The other two music styles such as glum and rouse did not been picked.  I think maybe the activity of taking elevator give people more relaxing, comfortable and cheerful moods.