PART 1
1. What does this object mean to you?
My modem… it’s actually not my modem. It’s Comcast’s. They wanted to send someone to install it and charge me a fee. “Installation” just means plugging it into cables. I think I had to argue with them to eliminate the fee. When ending your Comcast subscription, people often complain that Comcast will purposely lose the modem after you return it so you have to pay extra. I love and hate things about the modem.
It’s this black box (literally and metaphorically) that gives me Internetz, which is my lifeblood. It has flashing lights that I have no idea how to interpret. I kinda like the simplicity of it being a black box, but maybe it could be friendlier and easier to understand. The lights are really annoying at night, because I can see the light from my bed. It keeps me awake. So I usually hang the modem awkwardly from the top of my desktop computer tower, which blocks the lights from my view.
Sometimes the Internetz stops working, so I pull the power and plug it back in. So then it works.
PART 3
1. What if we looked at all objects, people, thoughts, and things in the world this way?
If we looked at everything in the world by breaking it down into scientific, formal, representation, and interpretative steps, then we would be able to separate goal from execution. For example, trying to make a modem into a black box is a valid design direction–people like me just want our Internetz and don’t need to be exposed to all of the complexity. However, modem still exposes some complexity comes off as annoying and unfriendly to me.
2. When would we need to look at the world this way?
Breaking down experiences into scientific, formal, representation, and interpretative is crucial in a design context. We have a certain intent for a kind of experience we want to create, but sometimes we aren’t able to represent it such that others interpret it in how we intend. Instead of talking about how a design is “good” or “bad”, we can speak of it in terms of the gap between intent and execution through these steps.
3. Has the meaning of this object changed?
Yes! I didn’t realize the “black box” metaphor that the modem is trying to accomplish until I went through the representation step.