Textile Designers rely on touch and their tacit knowledge and experience to navigate a constantly
evolving world of material which they discover primarily through physical experiences such as expos
and material collections. Digital material platforms would increase the accessibility of materials.
However, the current material library landscape lacks the necessary sensory data. In addition,
gathering this data is limited by the textile industry tools which are primarily focused on
standardisation as opposed to design innovation. Faced with these challenges, this paper presents a
research framework for an inclusive and holistic approach towards sensory properties within a
materials library – the Sensory Materials Library (SML). Based on this framework, preliminary
research into connecting the objective and subjective properties for a prototype library is presented,
the aim being to support digital tools to help Designers discover, select and learn about materials. As
an example of such a tool, we have developed the AiLoupe, an AI-enabled mobile application that
uses image-based material classification to present sensory properties for properties to Designers.
We present our initial iterative development process for AiLoupe and potential applications that fit
within a greater research paradigm that aims to connect material research from raw materials, distributed manufacturing, branding, retail, product use, end-of-life and circular processes.