Design for Social Good 10 portfolio items · 2 films
Boring Objects Bureau: Phones
Eric Fan
Rhode Island School of Design
The Boring Objects Bureau is a design studio for exploring new approaches to product sustainability, with the smartphone as its first object of investigation. Phones occupy an interesting space within sustainability, where approaches such as increased repairability can struggle with desirability. In markets where consumers can afford to replace their devices, repairing a phone can feel inconvenient or less appealing than simply buying something new. As an alternate approach, the Bureau wanted to ask whether common types of breakage widely regarded as ‘failure states’, such as degraded batteries or cracked screens, could instead be embraced and turned into new device experiences?
