sensedescribing

Sensedescribing is the practice of systematically articulating and documenting the sensory experiences of a perceiver, including external stimuli such as sights, sounds, smells, textures, and tastes, as well as internal sensations like proprioception and interoception. The term combines sense with describing and is used primarily in qualitative research, phenomenology, and therapeutic settings to capture the raw texture of experience that objective measures may miss.

Practitioners typically record descriptions in real time or soon after observation, using prompts to elicit details about immediacy, intensity, timing, and emotional response of each sensation. Methods include journaling, structured interviews, audio or written transcripts, and time-stamped annotations, often accompanied by contextual notes about environment and attention.

Applications of sense-describing span several domains. In cognitive science and sensory ethnography, it helps study how people perceive environments. In psychology and therapy, it assists clients articulate subjective experiences that may be difficult to express verbally. In user experience research, it documents how products engage the senses, informing design. In education, it can train observational and descriptive skills.

Limitations and challenges include the inherently subjective nature of descriptions, which can be influenced by language, memory, mood, and cultural norms. Reliability and comparability may be limited, and rigorous protocols and transparent coding are often required for research uses. Sensedescribing is not a widely standardized term and tends to appear in niche or interdisciplinary contexts, overlapping with phenomenology, qualitative research, and sensory studies.

Related concepts include phenomenology, qualitative research, sensory ethnography, and mindful observation.