Abstract Take a moment to reflect on how much you care for your sense of smell. Our sense of smell is vital to health, well-being, and early detection of neurodegenerative diseases, yet it remains overlooked in daily life and largely absent from Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research. This paper introduces smell care, the intentional cultivation and maintenance of olfactory function, as a new focus for HCI. Using micro-phenomenological and semi-structured interviews with 24 participants from diverse cultural backgrounds and professional expertise, we examine how individuals actively cultivate, sustain, and interpret their olfactory experiences within everyday and culturally situated practices. We identified three key design implications for HCI: (1) integrating multisensory playfulness to enhance engagement with smell care, (2) encouraging mindful, everyday engagement with ambient smellscapes, and (3) grounding smell care in personal and cultural connections to foster deeper, meaningful experiences. These directions emphasise building on existing habits and culturally embedded experiences, informing interactive systems that support sustained and meaningful olfactory well-being in daily life.
Beşevli et al. (Sun,) studied this question.