Negotiating Dominance and Submission Through Industrial Design

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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
  

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