The Power of Horror: Describing Design through Metaphors
What types of movies are you attracted to? Adventure? Comedy? Documentary?
Personally, I’m a fan of action. I’ve seen my beloved nerd culture re-emerge in mainstream society as an opportunity to wax poetic about the unique nature of my favorite stories. It doesn’t matter if it’s Death Note, or Black Panther, or Full Metal Alchemist; there’s something about that repeatable formula that keeps me coming back.
Recently, however, my girlfriend’s attracted me to a darker genre: horror and suspense movies. When I cringe audibly at The Conjuring or the Fyre documentary, she’s excited because she can’t predict what’s going to happen next.
Though I used to be reviled at them, I’m learning to love them more and more. I’ve already talked about how Bird Box reframed my philosophy of design. I realized by imbibing these new stories, I don’t just become entertained, I gain new perspectives on the world.
So, my designers, let’s gain some perspective.
[Metaphor]: an expression, often found in literature, that describes a person or object by referring to something that is considered to have similar characteristics to that person or object:
I’ve already talked about why it’s so hard to talk about design.
In that article, I discussed how the field is amorphous and adaptive, systemic, and how it also inhales everything it might find useful. When designers try to create something new, they’re likely to draw from one unrelated experience to another, to develop something new and unique. Metaphors are the perfect tool to start that cognitive jump.
Imagine every time you’ve tried to tell a story about something that caught your attention. You want to communicate a complex feeling, without being overly complicated or loquacious. Why not let a comparison do the work?
The job interview was a rope ladder dropped from heaven.
David is a worm for what he did to Shelia.
My soul was a lampless sea and she was the tempest.
It’s clear that the job interview, David and his soul aren’t literally a rope, a worm, or a lampless sea, but using the metaphor communicates so much more about the subjects and how people feel them. That mental image, leveraged correctly, can offer designers a way to re-imagine world around them.
They use metaphors when researching, to understand better opportunities to solve problems spaces and opportunities to solve them:
“ So, you’re trying to connect better with NGOs in the homelessness space. Would you say it’s a connection of islands?”
They use metaphors when brainstorming, to communicate potential solutions to problems.
“This organization needs to be more creative. What if this Ministry of Health acted like a kindergarten?”
They even use metaphors to explain solutions that people haven’t even seen before.
“This website, www.colleagueconnect.co.bw, is the switchboard for the employees to find mentorship and social connection.”
That website’s fake, by the way.
This is an essential reason why innovators must learn outside the fields of ‘design’: the more unique and varied information a designer is exposed to, the larger a designer’s toolbox to draw from when the time is right. However, developing the right metaphor for a situation requires practice. Choosing the wrong one might lead to confusion or the wrong solution for end users.
That’s why today we’re going to take you through the process of choosing the right metaphor. Where do we start?
How about we define the entire field of design?
“What is the field of design?”
I used to think I knew how to answer this question.
Designers argue that all of human creation, from the abacus to the zipper, was created through methods of design. Additionally, any activity intended to create also falls within that boundary. Lots of ground to cover. Before, when talking about design, I used to mention how the field is:
- accessible by everyone,
- molds and adapts to its environment,
- takes credit for every single creative activity ever developed in the world,
- and is growing by the day.
When explaining this, I used to name formative philosophers and interesting projects that serve as case studies to explain the field’s future. Or, I can explain a unique method set designers love to utilize, like contextual inquiry or brainstorming, to show how everyone — even you — can productively use the skills of design to address deep-seated problems in your world.
Nope. Most people remain too confused.
Now, when people ask, “What is the field of design?” I start a different way:
Have you heard of the movie The Blob?
You know the Blob, right? If you watch the movie today, you might find it a bit more funny than scary.
What’s important about the blob, however, is that the topic holds narrative weight. People from many communities have been exposed to, and can therefore understand, qualities of the Blob into other states of being.
Take a second. When you hear the statement, ‘Design is like the Blob,’ what does it make you think of?
- All-encompassing?
- Growing?
- Evolving?
- Disgusting?
You see the power of metaphors. If I were to explain the field quickly and easily to strangers, the Blob does all of the work.
Except, it doesn’t.
With metaphoric power comes great responsibility; it’s clear that the Blob might translate the wrong idea to our colleagues. Some might hear about The Blob and think:
- Design is scary.
- Design is uncontrollable.
- Design is disgusting.
- Design is horror-inducing.
Not what we want.
The quality of the metaphor depends on who we’re talking to, how they’ve been exposed to the idea, and our ability to translate that idea into further understanding.
This is why it’s important to test, and collect data on, the power of our metaphors. Which examples work where? How do people take the information? What’s our goal, and does this example serve the purpose?
Sometimes, however, the example is too far gone. We need better examples to describe the example.
Like this: Design is like Annihilation.
Have you seen Annihilation?
If you haven’t, big Spoiler Warning ahead. But, if you’re interested in learning more, using this movie is essential.
Go watch it if you need to; it’s stellar. If you didn’t, I promise I don’t reveal EVERYthing.
Ready?
Natalie Portman’s character journeys into a mysterious ‘Shimmer’ in order to save her husband with grizzled exploration and science experts, and is horrified at what she finds. Turns out, the Shimmer’s horrifying quality is its ability to refract DNA of everyone and everything inside; the longer you stay in, the more everything starts to reflect the biological characteristics of everything else.
Crocodiles get the teeth of sharks.
Fingerprints start to move.
Humans turn into trees. Maybe. Possibly.
By taking pages from H.P. Lovecraft, humans become insignificant; everything living within its reach is affected, shaped and changed. What might be even scarier, is the Shimmer might do this without a clear motive. It’s hard to say if it’s evil, or just existing, but its mere existence challenges our protagonists’ ability to dominate our world.
Creepy.
Like a design nerd, however, I realized how useful this movie was to describing the field we all struggle to communicate.
Design doesn’t ‘blob’.
Design refracts.
Think about the famous light prism experiment. By going through the glass, the light is forever changed but continues to keep endemic parts of itself.
The “Shimmer” does something similar: everything living is taken in, reformed, and shaped, but the end product isn’t a part of a single whole. It adapts, and changes, based on the diversity of the living things involved.
Good design offers the opportunity for people’s inherent qualities to be reflected in the new things they create. Hopefully, you don’t just create the new design; you create a new version of yourself while designing. As a designer, you are the boundary of the Shimmer that refracts our world.
Of course, it’s not a perfect metaphor. Few metaphors rarely are.
- People are not the same, and thus the design refraction isn’t done the same way by everyone.
- People have motivations and values, and the way they refract design is reflective of those values.
- Most importantly, it isn’t automatic; design is purposefully engaged in by designers.
Yes, the metaphor isn’t fully complete. But, it communicates enough.
Nothing is new under the sun. Most people that are working to create something new and impactful on the world are translating an old concept into a new environment.
That’s why metaphors are so powerful. Think of any time you’re trying to understand or translate something in your mind. Now, think about how that new concept could be made real.
- What if schools were like concerts?
- What if offices felt like home?
- What if drones operated like an ant colony?
- What if your family operated like WWE Smackdown?
The opportunities are endless.
Start refracting.
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