Monday, November 11, 2013

User Experience of drinking

I tweeted something pithy (how else can one tweet?) about this today, but then I stepped back and realized that this is as much of an example of user experience design as an intuitive shopping app, perhaps even more.  If you don't feel like clicking through to the original, it describes a device that floats around a cocktail and "delivers dainty drops of liquid to the tongue" thereby enhancing the flavor experience. 

Your appreciation of this innovation probably depends on your history with flavors, your tasting biographic (especially if you are one of the lucky "Supertasters"), and how much of your drinking experience is based on the (social) atmosphere and how much is based on the chemistry. 

For those of us who love the sensory experience of tasting our food and drink, this is really important.  I have noticed in past that I enjoy the strategically placed caraway seed in my rye bread more than the overwhelming "everything" bagel.  This innovative cocktail apparatus seems to hit this need right on the nose (or I guess right on the tongue).