The Web Design Refrigerator Metaphor: finding and understanding innovation within your design
Innovation and design can be a difficult thing; simply being creative in itself can be a challenge. How do you do it and where do you start? Well, I thought I’d ask and answer the question as it seems to be a popular one these days. Now that “web 2.0” seems to be behind us, the name of the game appears to be innovation. How can you without reinventing the wheel create something new and an experience that is beyond convention in an effort to be more intuitive and simply better? I start every project by trying to achieve one objective; “put the freezer on the bottom”.
The concept of the refrigerator has been around since 1,000 B.C. when the Chinese cut and stored ice. However, what really inspires innovation within me is that for the last hundred years of mechanical refrigeration; it wasn’t until recently that we started placing the freezer on the bottom. This design change is a mind blowing thought to me. While I am sure technical limitations are responsible for the first generation of refrigerators, the placement of the freezer has historically never made much sense from a design and usability standpoint. When I first saw this change; I was put off and disturbed – that is what bothered me more than anything else. Simply because I saw something different than convention and what I had been use to for the duration of my entire life, I didn’t like it and couldn’t grasp the change. Regardless, the freezer’s bottom placement is nothing more than common sense design. The freezer traditionally has less in it with respect to the refrigerator and is accessed less, especially with respect to the bottom drawers of the fridge. So, it makes logical sense that the areas accessed more often with more items stored would be placed at a more convenient accessing level than others.
When I start any project, I try and put the freezer on the bottom. I don’t necessarily know what that hell that means or how the hell I am going to do it; but that is my starting-point. In essence I am trying to create a more logical and sensible design with the user in mind. I am trying not to let my exposure to the internet influence limitations within my designs. Just because Outlook has done an action a certain way for the past ten years doesn’t necessarily mean that is how email should perform. It may be how we think it should be performed, but perhaps someone hasn’t come along yet and said “why not put the freezer on the bottom?” It isn’t that everything existing today needs to be rethought, it is simply that we need not limit ourselves and be known that change can happen and should happen when appropriate. Be innovative with your design when it is appropriate; but actually do it!
I implore you all. Go out and design and ask, “How can I put the freezer on the bottom?”
- February 19th, 2007
- 15comments
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Great article. I love the metaphor. As a former news reporter, it reminds me of what we called “the inverted pyramid” scheme, wherein the most pertinent information from the story was at the top, and the least important info was at the bottom.
Scooter, appreciate the comment. I think the metaphor can easily be applied to different mediums!
As an owner of a fridge with a freezer on the bottom, I heartily agree. Keep the most important stuff right in my face, at eye level. And I appreciate new ideas…the side doors that hold a gallon of milk, no-spill shelves, filtered water.
I saw another cool fridge yesterday…the Samsung with a split freezer on the bottom. So this $2800 Ferrari of fridges has four compartments, with four separate temperature controls. No more digging through a giant cavern of frozen goods looking for that Trader Joe’s risotto. And, one or both of the freezers could be used as a mini fridge, for example, during a party or big dinner. Each section has its own evaporator and cooling unit, meaning you can segregate out food with strong odors (kimchi, curry, smoked salmon).
What does this mean for web design? Give people the ability access information more easily by breaking down or compartmentalizing sections. One giant “freezer” is harder to sort through than a compartment designed into adequately small sections. Make each section clear and distinct. Find out what frustrates your customers, and then respond with innovation.
Another great article, Martin. Thanks for posting these!
Great article - and yes, I love my fridge with the freezer on the bottom. But occasionally, someone looks at my fridge and doesn’t realize there is a freezer there.
Make sure in your design that moving the freezer doesn’t make it “disappear” for someone who only looks at the place where they expect to find it.
I agree with everyone. However, remember the point is to think outside the box .. not let convention limit your creativity.
nice quick post. i also use the refrigerator metaphor when dealing with clients, however with a different purpose.
not surprisingly, i try to advise against haphazardly-placed UI artifacts, ads, or other callouts that, if ended up exactly where the client may have wanted, would look like a bunch of magnets tossed on the fridge with no structure, rhyme or reason…
Don’t spend much time worrying about folk who are dependent on the “good old way” of doing something. If you truly believe it will be a problem, put a small place-holder link where they will expect it and remove the link in rev 2.
If your design really is as much better as the bottom freezer, these conservatives will, in order, come to accept it, like it, expect it, and bitch when someone else doesn’t do it the (new) “good old way.” Of course, most of us are lucky to make that kind of obvious advance even once in our careers, but we can hope. And even if people don’t end up loving our work, we should still try to make it as lovable as possible!
another analogy i have for some reason always remembered came from some guitarist. maybe someone like eddie van halen. not him, but someone of that era. he said that he came up with his memorable and unique riffs by inventing one that sounded cool and then breaking it down to see what he was stealing, via memory, from old riffs by other musicians. then he’s switch a few notes or a beat, and the riff would become his own.
in other words, he’d start with something familiar (the refrigerator with the freezer on top) and then do something simple and deliberate to make it different (put the freezer on the bottom).
martin, i love your approach, because you see web design as the art that it is. on 43 folders recently, there was a post about how writing code is similar to writing prose, that it requires that kind of creative attention. i truly believe that. one of the most common ways for those new to html or java is to go to sites that they like and pull the code. this is wonderful! when hunter s thompson was teaching himself to write prose, he literally rewrote, word for word, pages and pages of hemingway’s works. not to republish it or to claim it for his own, but to practice the physical requirements of skillful writing.
progress requires a starting point, and we have to embrace that starting point for its real value. but then, progress requires that we make a change for the better. we cant change the entire refrigerator every time, that just doesnt make sense. and if someone were to build a fully functional web 2.0 application that looked absolutely nothing like anything which came before, nobody would use it, because it would be too different.
so instead of putting the door on the back of the fridge, we put the freezer on the bottom. but a freezer-on-the-bottom fridge isnt the ultimate fridge. that is something still to come, something we cant even envision. we’ll get there, step by step.
as it is with web development. it’s important to point out how to innovate, but it’s equally important to remember the source, to pay attention to familiarity, and to make creative decisions with both in mind.
I love the metaphor but thought that id add that as a product you mentioned the fridge and freezer have been around for an eon but the web has not and this in itself makes change and innovation a dangerous concept. People trawling the web are not web designers and maybe have only owned a computer for months or maybe a few yrs at most. In recent research it has been found that the average web trawler can make his or her mind up about your website in a fraction of a second and if in that fraction of a second they dont understand the nav system or the layout they may just pack up and leave so although your point is valid i feel that with the web we have to introduce change very slowly and subtly.
I think you make a very good point. So I think it is important for me to mention that I don’t suggest doing something radical. I merely suggest thinking about the experience everytime you do anything — don’t do something simply because convention tells you to do it — their may be a better way!
I agree with you, keep in mind that your changing of convention may inherently have a negative impact simply because it does break convention.
I agree with your latest comments that we should think about things differently if at all possible and just to make sure i wasnt misinterpretated, I enjoyed your article and thanks for the comment on the comment. hehe.
Congratulations for the article and I’m 100% agree that for design is necessary to think out of the box, but for me the article doesn’t show, how to do that in a structured way.
How to be creative from a white sheet of paper to a product still a chalenger that no one has a good answer.
Piton,
Thanks for the comment … you are correct, the article was only intended to ensure people start thinking out-side-the-box. Once you can start asking the “how can I be innovative” — the next step is to figure out how to actually do it.
I’ve got a lot of thoughts on the topic and will perhaps put it down on paper one day when I get some free time.
I must admit, this refrigerator looks quite interesting and also inspiring. People need utility and aesthetics. When you find a way to combine these two items you get big chances for success. I have noticed that lately attention is drawn for frigidaire parts, and that’s because we are dealing whit a large appliance that can open many innovative possibilities.
@gordman It does seem that the evolution of the refrigerator has a lot of similarities to the evolution of design of content and innovation in general. Going from taking the form of nothing more than a utility to becoming a creative outlet and expression.