Human perception has long been a critical subject of design thinking. While various studies have stressed the link between thinking and acting, particularly in spatial experience, the term “design thinking” seems to disconnect conceptual thinking from physical expression or process. Spatial perception is multimodal and fundamentally bound to the body that is not a mere receptor of sensory stimuli but an active agent engaged with the perceivable environment. The body apprehends the experience in which one’s kinesthetic engagement and knowledge play an essential role. Although design disciplines have integrated the abstract, metaphoric, and visual aspects of the body and its movement into conceptual thinking, studies have pointed out that design disciplines have emphasized visuality above the other sensory domains and heavily engaged with the perception of visual configurations, relying on the Gestalt principles. Gestalt psychology must be valued for its attention to a whole. However, the theories of design elements and principles over-empathizing such visuality posit the aesthetics of design mainly as visual value and understate other sensorial and perceptual aspects. Although the visual approach may provide a practical means to represent and communicate ideas, a design process heavily driven by visuality can exhibit weaknesses undermining certain aspects of spatial experience despite the complexity. Grounded in Merleau-Ponty’s notion of multisensory perception, this article discusses the relationship between body awareness and spatial perception and its implication for design disciplines concerning built environments. Special attention is given to the concepts of kinesthetic and synesthetic phenomena known as multisensory and cross-sensory, respectively. This discussion integrates the corporeal and spatiotemporal realms of human experience into the discourse of kinesthetic and synesthetic perceptions. Based on the conceptual, theoretical, and precedent analyses, this article proposes three models for design thinking: Synesthetic Translation, Kinesthetic Resonance, and Kinesthetic Engagement. To discuss the concepts rooted in action-based perception and embodied cognition, this study borrows the neurological interpretation of haptic perception, interoception, and proprioception of space. This article suggests how consideration of the kinesthetic or synesthetic body can deepen and challenge the existing models of the perceptual aspects of environmental psychology adopted in design disciplines.

A critical question in interior design is how multisensory information is integrated into occupant perception and interpretation of the environmental contexts and meanings. Although there have been efforts to identify and theorize visual perception of interior factors or features (e.g., colors, fixtures, and signs), the hidden meanings behind visual attention and behaviors have been neglected in interior design research. This experimental phenomenological study investigates the impact of auditory stimuli on the gaze behaviors of individuals and the hidden meanings of their audio-visual perceptions of commercial interiors. Implementing eye-tracking and open-ended interviews, this study explored how the neurophysiological and phenomenological methods in complementary can serve for interior design research on the meaning of gaze behaviors. The study used a convenience sample of 26 participants, three coffee shop interior images, and two musical stimuli. Essential to this study is the interpretive analysis of corresponding eye-tracking and interview data. The results show that visual perception is affected by auditory stimuli and other interior elements and factors associated with personal experiences; however, no distinct gaze pattern is identified by the type of auditory stimuli. The fixation patterns showed mixed reflections of the participants' perceptions, e.g., a single fixation pattern reflecting participants' likes and dislikes. Findings included six essential meanings of participants' gaze behaviors. This study suggested that auditory and visual stimuli are reciprocal in individuals' perceptions. Rather than one affects the other, the interaction between sensory stimuli contributes to the complexity and intensity of multisensory stimuli people associate with their experiences and conceptualize with meanings they establish.

Wayfinding with minimal effort is essential for reducing cognitive load and emotional stress in unfamiliar environments. This exploratory quasi-experimental study investigated wayfinding challenges in a university building housing three spatially dispersed counseling centers and three academic departments that share the building entrances, lobby, and hallways. Using mobile eye tracking with concurrent think-aloud protocols and schematic mapping, we examined visual attention patterns during predefined navigation tasks performed by 24 first-time visitors. Findings revealed frequent fixations on non-informative structural features, while existing wayfinding cues were often overlooked. High rates of null gazes indicated unsuccessful visual searching. Thematic analysis of verbal data identified eight key issues, including spatial confusion, aesthetic monotony, and inadequate signage. Participants frequently described the environment as disorienting and emotionally taxing, comparing it to institutional settings such as hospitals. In response, we developed wayfinding design proposals informed by our research findings, stakeholder needs, and contextual priorities. We used an experiential digital twin that prioritized perceptual fidelity to analyze the current wayfinding challenges, develop experimental protocols, and discuss design options and costs. This study offers a transferable methodological framework for identifying wayfinding challenges through convergent analysis of gaze patterns and verbal protocols, demonstrating how empirical findings can inform targeted wayfinding design interventions.

This perspective article, looking through the lens of neurodiversity, discusses the benefits and challenges of implementing virtual environments and wearable technologies in interior design and related fields. While the relationship between human perception and built environments has long been studied in the environmental design disciplines, the direct impact on occupant performance related to neurodiversity has been underexplored in research, with a shortage of knowledge supporting how it can be applied in design practice concerning the end users. Individuals’ perceptual, cognitive, and affective responses to their surroundings vary, as neurodiversity plays a key role in the invisible, human-environment interaction. Thus, measuring, analyzing, and understanding affective, perceptual, and cognitive experiences is a challenging process in which various factors come into play, and no single method or measurement can adequately work for all. Due to such challenges, research has also utilized various biometric measurements and tools for immersive experiments in physical and virtual environments, e.g., eye tracking used in studies on gaze behaviors and immersive virtual reality (IVR) used in studies on the spatial perception of dementia patients. Along with empirical methods, studies have stressed the contribution of phenomenology to looking into the hidden dimension, the ‘why factors’ of perception, cognition, and affectivity. Concerning the methodological approach, this perspective article shares insights into a novel process model, Participatory Neurodesign (PND) framework, used in wayfinding research and design processes utilizing eye tracking and IVR. Opportunities for neurodesign research and design practice are also discussed, focusing on the health, safety, and wellbeing of end-users.

Sustainability and its fundamental principles have become integral across various fields, significantly influencing academic and professional standards and guidelines for interior design. Key entities such as the Council for Interior Design Accreditation, International WELL Building Institute, National Association of Schools of Art and Design, and US Green Building Council have played crucial roles in defining and promoting these standards. Over the past two decades, there have been growing endeavors to integrate social considerations into sustainable design practice. Design approaches and processes have increasingly emphasized the involvement of diverse stakeholders, including local communities, influencing interior design education to incorporate these sociocultural impacts. Some critical aspects of sustainability revolve around adaptive reuse, a strategy that has sparked considerable debate within the industry. Widely recognized as a sustainable design and development strategy, adaptive reuse also concerns the cultural and historical contexts of built environments. By repurposing existing urban structures, adaptive reuse also contributes to reducing new carbon footprints, thereby enhancing environmental sustainability. This article provides an overview of adaptive reuse concepts and examines the sociocultural impacts on the environmental design industry, emphasizing its positive aspects, such as reducing waste and preserving cultural heritage, as well as challenges. The article analyzes precedent projects through the lens of sociocultural sustainability and proposes a conceptual model that delineates its construct. Furthermore, it discusses the educational implications of adaptive reuse, illustrated by a student project integrating research, programming, and adaptive reuse strategies to address place identity.

Interior design education has a long tradition of integrating project experiences into courses, providing students with opportunities to engage with community stakeholders to develop design solutions. However, experimentation with how co-design projects can be sequenced within an interior design curriculum has been underexplored. This study intentionally zooms out from singular experiences of co-design projects and instead examines multiple co-design experiences through the lens of co-design methods that are used within a curricular sequence. As such, this study explores the sequencing of co-design experiences and the role of scaffolding types of co-design methods across an interior design curriculum. Through course artifact analysis and interviews with students and stakeholders across three courses, third-year studio, undergraduate multi-level, and advanced senior-level, the study examines how a sequential approach contributes to a systematic co-design curriculum that integrates skill-building across multiple courses. Categorizing methods by role and timing in the co-design process, this research illustrates diverse applications of exploratory, generative, and evaluative approaches across three courses. The findings contextualize methods, including student-facilitated visioning sessions with participatory activities such as sliding scales, image elicitation, space-use mapping, along with technology integration. In addition, this work maps co-design processes to the Council for Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA) Professional Standards related to collaboration, business practices & professionalism, and human-centered design. Further, this study advances a framework for the strategic integration of co-design experiences and methods across an interior design program, suggesting implications for preparing students who can foster empathy and facilitate co-design processes in design practice.