Our Right to Moronic Design

In July, law enforcement officials took time out of their day to warn Americans against stupidity. Unfortunately, the language reappears so frequently, I fear that it may evolve into a national motto: People, think about it.

The latest reason for those in law and order to be up in arms is in a fight against those falsely armed. What started off as an interesting nuisance, seemingly without malice, was a handgun-shaped cellphone case that was manufactured on a 3D printer. The design was created to provoke, but was otherwise clunky and unfinished — the layers were still visible to the naked eye.

As is the new market model, a photo was posted online, and many people liked it, while others commented on the unnecessary absurdity. The exposure reached critical mass, and the next logical step was full-scale manufacture.

The new model paid greater attention to detail to the point where it started to look like everyone was packing heat in the back pockets of skinny jeans and cargo shorts across the globe. The mass-marketed novelty was available everywhere, from Amazon to AliExpress (Alibaba retailer), and it even came with a rudimentary Russian Roulette app plug-in, which turned the screen into an animated gun barrel.

I understand how these ideas happen. Not the decision to seek out manufacturing partners overseas, or begin recording audio to ensure maximum, chamber-spinning realism on an app, but the inappropriate napkin sketch, or brainstorming session that careens off of the rails and into the absurd.

Photo tweeted from NYPD Queens North School Safety Division (@queensnorth_ssd) with photos of the iPhone gun case. Tweet reads, “New cell phone cases. This is ridiculous!!!”

I, too, sit around the fire with my friends and (more often) family spitballing obnoxiously inappropriate product ideas. We add features, crude marketing slogans, and discuss feasibility until someone takes it a little too far, and we laugh ourselves into an uncomfortable silence, which is inevitably broken when someone sighs and says, “You know what? I bet that already exists.”

Yes, we have a right to moronic design, and I will fight against any possible infringement upon that right, but that doesn’t mean we can’t put forth a bit of effort when it comes to common sense, particularly when it comes to individual safety. Even though a product is “for entertainment purposes only,” the designer has to understand the possible implications when it winds up in the hands of the lowest common denominator, intellectually speaking.

Admittedly, I will note that the overcorrection when it comes to safety is equally irrational. Instead of emphasizing the novelty and inherent risk of misuse, we call on Amazon and AliExpress to strip the cases from their shelves. Both since complied.

I run into ridiculous design on a daily basis. Look at the name of the publication. Simple internet searches led many entrepreneurs and inventors to my inbox with a slew of designs so bad that they do not bear mentioning in this space (if for no other reason than to make sure that I don’t offer any unintentional exposure).

But who knew so many munitions-based products existed? And with the upcoming election, let’s just say that people will put a candidate’s face on anything. After all, what else are they going to sell next to gas station cash registers in rural Wisconsin?

Design is an extension of freedom of speech, our freedom of expression. Do you have a right to manufacture (or purchase) that Confederate flag? Absolutely. Will it most likely make you look like a provocateur? Perhaps, but both the supplier and customer need to take responsibility when they make such choices.

While a realistically gun-shaped cellphone case may be a doozy of a conversation starter around the fire, everyone may be best served if it’s tossed into the blaze after all humor is exhausted from the prop. It’s likely a better scenario than having a worried parent call you in to the authorities as you go to text your grandmother from the produce section.

Do we have a right to moronic design? What is the best (worst) moronic design that you have seen available on the market? Email David.Mantey@advantagemedia.com.

This column originally appeared in the September 2015 print edition of PD&D, it can also be found on www.pddnet.com.