Negotiating Dominance and Submission Through Industrial Design
I’ve argued before that every object engages users in a kind of unspoken dialogue. The product’s look and feel is a message that the user decodes according to culture and memory. Then the exchange of meaning reverses: the user signals intention by manipulating the object.
Like interactions between people, every dialogue between user and product can be framed as an exchange of power as well as meaning. Products like erasers and hammers submit to our intentions, while cell phones, books, and subways make us submit, either by seduction or force.
This seduction/ force dichotomy gives us a second dimension for mapping a product’s temperament. Some products are designed to be invisible (gentle), others to make themselves known (rough). So we have:
- Dominant, Gentle: These products limit your action possibilities to make the interaction easier or more efficient. A result for the user, unencumbered by the experience of using the product, is usually the designer’s goal. airplanes (for passengers), hospitals (for patients), automatic coffee machines, portfolio websites
- Dominant, Rough: These products are challenging and restrictive to use. The challenge can be positive, in the case of games, or negative, in the case of public transit. The deciding factor is intention: was the challenge part of the design or the result of a designer who didn’t care? the subway, digital cameras, home alarm systems, games
- Submissive, Gentle: Submissive, gentle products are usually the goal of ergonomic, ease-of-use driven mainstream industrial design. hybrid bike, shower, iPod, Photoshop, MP5
- Submissive, Rough: Products that do what you want but let you know they exist. If I had to only design within one of these groups, submissive and rough would be it. pre-modern tools, LEGO’s, chairs, tables, beautiful / uncomfortable shoes, blogs
4 Comments
March 24th, 2007 at 5:50 am
I hadn’t thought of objects like this. Intriguing. I use a glass, notice that it holds water, and that’s about it. Is it possible to force objects into categories unintended?
June 15th, 2007 at 4:15 pm
[...] Joey Roth Says: March 22nd, 2007 at 17.16 UTC [...]
November 17th, 2007 at 9:13 am
After having read that,i learnd more about the design of product.
Thank you very much !
January 5th, 2009 at 6:27 am
interesting post. the difference between gentle and rough in design is a new one for me.
i’m not getting your distinction between dominant and submissive, though. what are your criteria? i see a shower as being more dominant than public transit. i can choose my seat, choose my route, choose, in fact, my usage and purpose (to travel, to feel movement, to people watch, to have a quiet time to read, etc.) on public transit, but i can only do one thing, one way, in a shower. the shower forces me to stand in a particular space and hold my body in a particular way. it even punishes me if i hold my body wrong (water up my nose if i lean down too far).
or are these categories entirely subjective?