Smelly Maps offers users a scent guide to the top capital cities

Designer Kate McLean is on a mission to prove the nose is one giant data machine. Together with her team of researchers she's proposing a new way to explore the urban landscape. The result is Smelly Maps, a project that fuses social-media statistics and cartography to combat people’s pre-conceived idea of city-smells.  

Alongside Daniele Quercia, Luca Maria Aiello and Rossano Schifanella, McLean arranged walks with locals across seven cities in the UK, US and Europe, collating scent related words that identify with distinct locations. Upon return, the researchers matched their selected words, including 'Skunk, Rubber and Lavender', with social-media data compiled from platforms such as Flickr and Twitter, then built the first urban smell dictionary containing 285 English terms.

Taking into account the cities good and bad odours from air pollution, to animal smells, Smelly Maps works to disrupt visitors negative perspective, enabling them to celebrate the complex scents of the capital.

Using one the vital human senses as a tool for data discovery, Smelly Maps takes an unconventional approach to research. Proving that scent is a key indicator of taste and personal preference multi-sensory brand Onotes, bought nostalgic fragrance to a digital market with the release of their latest mobile app.