On Design — From Trash to Magic, an Odyssey About the Power of Emotion in Design
Storytelling is an incredibly powerful tool. It doesn’t matter how complicated a concept, a well-crafted story will transform it into something digestible and often something that one can carry with them throughout life. Good stories stick.
A few days ago, I wrote my first article on emotion in design, explained for non-designers. That article is based on a talk I love giving at conferences and workshops. When I stand in front of an audience, I like to start things on a personal note. It always builds a good relationship between me and a bunch of people who see me for the first time. Now I’m sitting at home in my pajamas, telling you, dear reader, a short but wonderful story.
The odyssey
Today, I don’t have any complicated concepts. No corporate talk, no visualised processes. But I do have a story. Today, I’ve gathered you here, to talk about trash cans. See… trash cans are the embodiment of functionality. Ten out of ten times it’s a can with maybe the word trash somewhere on it. Sometimes with a lit on it to keep hungry animals away. Never a surprising sight or a pleasant scent. Plain, boring, functional little things really.
And yet… when I think back on one of my earliest memories, I remember a trash can. It made an everlasting impression on me. More than 23 years passed, but I’m still talking about it. At conferences and in Medium articles. But my 3-years-old brain was totally mind-blown by it. I even have proof that this happened.
Yes, that’s me in the picture. Yes, my mom took a picture of me next to a trash can. But as you can see above, it is not your-usual-trash-can. It’s a trash can shaped like a hungry, crying baby and when something got thrown into it, it talks. A TALKING, BABY SHAPED TRASH CAN. It must have fired so many neurons in my fresh, young brain, that it made it impossible to forget.
The Full Experience
There is a reason why those trash cans look like this. For all the non-Dutchies in here, this photo is taken inside Efteling, the most famous theme park in The Netherlands. It’s like Disneyland but a bit more mystical and less corporate. See.. everything in Efteling spins around a single experience — Magic (or a ‘World of wonders” as their website states). My 3-years-old me can totally agree. Magical sorcery is what I encountered there. The tale about the talking, human-shaped trash cans goes like this:
In a land far away…
lived a family who were always hungry but didn’t like meat, bread or fish, it was in fact paper they prefered to gobble up. They made their favourite meal their profession and keep Efteling’s environment clean and free from rubbish. You will hear them shout ‘Papier hier’ whenever you pass by, so if you have any paper rubbish with you during your visit, please stop by and feed them — they will thank you! Source.
Efteling made the brilliant decision to include the very functional aspects of the themed park and turn them into part of the story. Part of the experience. Heck… my only experience back then, I was too small for the rides. As I grow up, I ask myself more and more — How many magical moments are missed because of pragmatism or lack of holistic view on the full brand experience? How many people DON’T end up talking about something so plain as trash (20+ years later) because we forgot to include the small things in the process? A lot. How many people DO end up talking about your brand’s equivalent of trash cans instead of your brand’s equivalent of the big rides? Close to none. It makes so much sense that even the dullest of things can be brought to life if a brand’s experience is about magic. But the problem doesn’t lay in the fact that other brands don’t promise magic. The problem lays in how we think about functionality vs. experiences. Let's put a bit of perspective on it.
The Serious Problems
Litter is a big problem. Worldwide. Lack of recycling as well. Lack of willingness to recycle actually, by companies, governments, and citizens. It’s not fun enough… right? In the ’80s Texas has a serious litter problem. The state was spending $25 million per year to keep it clean, but the costs were rising by 15% every year. Texas tried multiple strategies but nothing really helped. So the state hired Dan Syrek, the national leading researcher on litter. Yup, a legit profession. So after Syrek did what he does best, which is research on litter and how to stop it, a new campaign was born. Tv commercials appeared with famous, in Texas people, who proudly stated “Don’t Mess with Texas”.
The campaign turned out to be a very successful one, and in the upcoming years, fewer people ended up throwing litter wherever they felt fitting. I’m glad that Texas found a way to fight litter and change how people think and feel about throwing things in the trash can. Now the rest of the world… I mean, litter is still a very big problem in most places. A problem worth millions and millions of money yearly.
The Delightful Solution
Let’s imagine that the design of trash cans as we know them, didn’t stop at functionality. Let’s imagine a world where practical, functional things have a bit of emotion and personality in them. A world where every 3-years-old kid is mind-blown by trash cans. Do you think that we would have ended up with such a huge litter problem everywhere in the world? A lack of willingness to put the extra effort to recycle? I dare to argue that a world that makes not-littering a delightful experience is a world cleaner than the one we live in now.
But we keep telling ourselves that functionality alone will save the world. So we craft something soulless and very dull, and before we know it, we end up having a big problem, that billions of money can’t solve. There is a reason why Steve Job found it absolutely necessary for the first Macintosh to say ‘Hello”. There is a reason why we fell in love with cars in the ’40. Spoiler alert — it’s not functionality. It’s functionality plus something extra. Something human that embodies personality.
The Conclusion
There is that famous saying that design will save the world. But lately, it breaks it more than it saves it. Design is about solving problems, and people are about emotions and feelings. The time has come to combine those two and forget the outdated thinking that functionality + advertisement will do the trick. People don’t like being tricked, they like magic & delight. Don’t you?
