Designing for a multisensory experience
Humans crave novelty, pleasure, and dopamine & endorphins.
Research has it that activation of different senses in the body helps us produce more of these hormones, thereby increasing our happiness.
These are relatively common knowledge nowadays. Every person who aspires to be a product manager, UX designer, or marketer expects to understand human psychology. But a few years back, when the internet was at its nascent stage, two men, Roger Thomas and Steve Wynn teamed up to defy the odds at a time when psychology was not as big a movement. They took a whopping 1.6 billion dollar gamble on psychology and constructed The Bellagio casino, which serves as the Sharma-Ji ka beta of the casino world.
What makes Bellagio stand out amongst its competitors and predecessors? Why are psychologists, interior designers and casino enthusiasts so interested & intrigued about this particular casino? What makes this the crown jewel of the casino world? The answer lies in its design. Up until Bellagio, a casino’s design confused users, made them feel adrift and put them under stress while gambling & this was the biggest drawback of the classic casinos. Wynn & Thomas understood this problem and reimagined the casino experience. An experience in which people are always happy, as when they are happy, they tend to forget reality & lose track of what’s happening around them. Also, people overspend when they are emotionally safe and secure.
The dynamic duo tapped this aspect of human nature to design an experience where even the smell within the casino triggered people to be ecstatic. They got rid of the maze-like design, reducing confusion amongst the players and relaxing them. It gave people a false sense of calm, making them place more bets, even though those bets might be irrational. They also designed the casino to play the music that activated alpha &beta waves within the brain, which gets activated when relaxed.
Wynn and Thomas designed the casino to have long hallways and gave the customers a clear vision by factoring in the human nature of wanting clarity. It created a sense of trust for anyone who walked in, translating into repeat customers.
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