Magic Box Design
"Magic Box Design," frequently referred to by Destiny as the "Magic Box Theory," refers to an email from an unknown viewer that Destiny read on stream on September 9th, 2023.
Summary
The email critiques the concept of "magic box design," where companies (such as Apple) abstract away technical elements of their products to simplify the user experience, which in turn inhibits users' understanding of the technology they use daily. This trend, coupled with a monopoly on repairs and a simplified design philosophy, discourages critical engagement with technology, leading users to attribute problems (technical or otherwise) to external causes rather than having an understanding of the complexities themselves.
Approximate Transcript
Why People are Stupid: The Move Towards Magic Box Design
Hello, I listen to your stream, and while I partially agree with you about the effects of everyday systems and devices becoming more complicated—meaning that people need to place more faith in the operations of these systems—I think you’re missing an aspect of modern design. I’m calling this trend “Magic Box Design.”
- Apple’s Influence: The massive success of Apple products has led to the widespread adoption of its design philosophy, which is based on maximizing ease of use for casual users. This involves abstracting technical elements, making them difficult or even impossible to access. Compare Windows to macOS as operating systems, for example. Abstracting how the system works reduces the fear of complexity, but it also a) creates an illusion of simplicity, and b) prevents users from passively acquiring intermediate-level knowledge about how the system functions. Most people won’t bother to fully analyze a black box if they don’t need to.
- Revenue through Repair Monopoly: To capture more revenue, companies abstract their systems to the point where repairing them is very difficult or outright impossible. This can involve forcing the use of company-sanctioned software—John Deere tractors are an example that Louis Rossman talks a lot about—or making the system so opaque that 95% of people give up. The company then collects fees for repair services and can charge grossly inflated amounts so they have a semi-monopoly and the customers have no reference for the difficulty of the repair. Apple calling their tech support “Geniuses” seems like an attempt to mystify the repair process, making it appear beyond the reach of the layperson.
To use cars as an example: I don’t believe a mechanical transmission is much more complicated to grasp than an automatic transmission. But, you generally need to understand how a mechanical gearbox works to drive a manual car; this isn’t true for automatics. On top of that, looking at things like old car manuals suggests that many people used to feel capable of fixing minor issues themselves. It benefited the manufacturers, then, to present their systems as ultimately understandable. Today, for various reasons including profit and software as a service, that’s not the case. Companies benefit if people think only they know the secret of the magic box.
So, these devices and systems that people spend hours and hours with each day train them not to think critically about or analyze the systems they interact with. Combine this with two things you’ve talked about in the past: the deluge of banal information on the internet obliterating context, and design focused around sanding off every possible inconvenience a user may experience. The end result is that people end up thinking problems must be caused by malicious actors. This is because they can’t understand how complex systems function and are happy to shift the locus of responsibility for understanding to third parties.