Products are designed. Experiences are emergent.

A product is more than a formulation

A product is an arrangement of materials, physical properties, information, functions, instructions and sensory signals. Composition matters. So do form, texture, temperature, sound, aroma, taste, packaging, sequence of use and the meaning attached to the object.

Those features generate information. A person detects and interprets that information through a nervous system shaped by physiology, sensitivity, learning, memory, expectation, attention, goals and current state. The product matters profoundly. But it does not determine a single experience by itself.

This distinction is easy to lose because product development begins with things we can specify: ingredients, dimensions, tolerances, concentrations, delivery and performance requirements. Human response arrives later as a score, a preference, a complaint, a behavioural measure or a market outcome.

That score is not downstream decoration. It is evidence about an interaction.

A practical model for the interaction

A useful applied model is: product-generated stimuli × person × context × time → perception → experience → behaviour → decision.

The multiplication signs matter. The effect of a product property can depend on the person encountering it, the context surrounding it and the point in the use trajectory at which it occurs. Product-extrinsic cues such as information, packaging and setting can alter expectation and evaluation, while multisensory signals jointly shape what is perceived (Piqueras-Fiszman & Spence, 2015; Spence & Gallace, 2011).

Martha Bajec’s work on thermal taste and oral sensation provides a simple example. People can differ in their responsiveness to thermal and chemical stimulation; temperature can change both the physical stimulus and the sensory response; and those differences can be associated with what people perceive, like and do (Bajec & Pickering, 2008; Bajec et al., 2012). The principle scales far beyond food and beverage.

A warning symbol changes information before consumption. A package changes handling and expectation. A product used repeatedly becomes familiar. A device that fits a routine can survive where a technically strong alternative does not. A product that performs in a controlled setting can become something else once time, noise, social context, price, habit and competing goals return.

Control is still essential

Controlled research isolates mechanisms, characterizes products, establishes discrimination and reduces competing explanations. The mistake is not control. The mistake is allowing a controlled answer to expand silently into a claim about people, contexts, behaviours or time periods that were never studied.

The harder applied question is often not simply “Does the product differ?” It is “Which part of the interaction must be understood for the decision we need to make?”

Products are designed. Experiences are emergent. Good research respects both facts.