Designing experiences that override human agency
"Fifteen Million Merits", the second episode of Black Mirror series, revealed a hard truth about design by showing the imbalance of power between those who design it and those who use it.
In 2011, when the episode was launched, the iPhone was gaining popularity. Apple also released the iPad. Social media use was growing rapidly, and the influencer trend was just getting started. The creators of this episode present a sci-fi world to show what might happen if we don’t control our device use.
Fast forward 15 years, and we have screens in our living rooms, cars, pockets, hands, on our wrists, and even on our eyes. Companies slowly pushed them onto all devices, and we accepted them as the norm without questioning their influence. Without realising it, we can’t spend a few hours, if not minutes, apart from them.
That's exactly how the episode starts. In the first scene, Bing wakes up in a box-like room with screens on all four walls. No windows, no furniture. Just a bed wrapped in screens, devices, and entertainment.
Even the sunrise was displayed on the screen.
The environment is black, with minimalist decor and low light. In this underground setting, people cycle all day to generate electricity for the outside world, which they can't access. Their reward for pedaling was a digital currency called "merits", which is used to pay for everything. It can be used to buy food, skip ads, or buy a golden ticket for “Hot Shot”. This talent show promises its winners their freedom. The only problem? Each participant must have a golden ticket, which is required to perform in the show and costs 15 million merits. In a world where skipping an ad costs 6500 merits, a golden ticket was a fortune.
In a world where the only things they could do all day were cycle, sleep, and eat, the talent show ticket was the best opportunity to escape it. Winners were promised that they would get it. With this in mind, Bing bought a golden ticket for Abi, a good singer he fell in love with. She won, but as a prize, the jury forced her to accept performing in her own porn programme, instead of allowing her to sing in his live show.
Bing had a hard time, as he saw how unfair the judges were and how they used manipulative tactics to make her decide to accept their offer.
Frustrated by how the system works, Bing bought another ticket for himself a few months later. His performance was a speech to millions of people watching the show. He held a shard of glass near his throat while he was on stage. All his emotions, frustrations, anger, and exasperation poured out in the speech. He talked about how the environment was created as a trap for all citizens living inside. Shows, people, everything was designed to create a fake world with fake needs and bad values. Their lives were a big lie. Even their goals and dreams were fake.
"All we know is fake fodder and buying shit. That's how we speak to each other and how we express ourselves. We buy shit. What, I have a dream? The peak of our dreams is a new app for our Dopple. It doesn't exist!"
His speech was the only authentic performance among millions of others. He faced the entire system alone, and his power to change their perception was nonexistent. The judges treated him like a performer. They saw him as another way to make money, and he was offered a role in his own show. The only one who realised how false the environment was and tried to protest against it got productised, packaged, and sold.
The episode's ending revealed a hard truth about design by showing the imbalance of power between those who create it and those who use it. This asymmetry creates a responsibility that extends beyond what is seen and felt during interaction with an interface, an environment, or a physical product. It goes to the deepest layer of design, the one that shapes our behaviour, decisions, and lives while interacting with it.
When we view design this way, our morals, values, and principles blend with the act of creation. The perspective forces us to question what values we are encoding into the systems we create. Creators may begin to consider the ethics of their work, the power they hold, and how their designs affect users.