Pat’s Point of View

Have you ever noticed how in the movies smell is almost always overlooked?

I’ve noticed that in many scenes, a sense of smell would punch big holes in the plot. Imagine, our hero or heroine is being chased by the bad guy, they run into a cluttered warehouse and hide. The bad guy enters soon afterwards and creeps around searching for his prey. In real life, if you’ve been running around in fear of your life, you’re probably going to pong something fierce. The bad guy wouldn’t need to be a bloodhound to track you down.

One film I can recall, in which characters use their sense of smell, is The Last Starfighter. When the hero, Alex, is off fighting the forces of the Kodan armada, his android substitute is able to locate the Zan-Do-Zan (alien bounty-hunter sent to destroy Alex) by it’s bad odour. No fancy tracking device needed, just a nose.

Yes I know I have thought about this way too much, but I’m like that.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 18th, 2007 at 1:19 pm and is filed under Ramblings. If you enjoyed this post, you might also like to leave a comment or follow @patrickkennedy on Twitter.

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About the author

Patrick Kennedy is a user experience strategist and design researcher based in Sydney Australia. He leads research activities that improve the user experience of cross-channel products and services; helping both designers and business decision makers in bringing those products and services to fruition. Read more.