Something that struck me while reading Chapter 2 of Wang’s “Artful Design” was how the design principles he introduced are values-agnostic. No matter the ideology, value system, or incentive structure, these design principles can be used to increase a design’s reach towards those ideals. I think of Principle 2.7, “Design to Lower Inhibition,” and how mobile gambling apps (ab)use this principle to get their customers to spend greater and greater amounts of money on their apps. Those same gambling apps, and the casinos that inspire them, are well-versed in principle 2.4: “Take Advantage of Physicality.” Pulling the lever on a slot machine, or pushing a button to spin the wheel, invokes an ineffable tactile experience. These apps are designed to mimic that physicality as much as possible, to conjure the symbol of the lever for the app user to tie the app’s facsimile of a tactile experience to the memory of the experience itself. Even principle 2.6, “Technology Should Create Calm,” is used by casinos to attract and retain customers. It’s difficult to describe the all-encompassing experience that is walking around in a Vegas casino in words–the floors are all carpeted, resulting in very little resonance connecting one part of the building to another. Rooms in the lobby are less often cleanly separated as much as they meld into one another, one area transitioning smoothly and without fanfare into the next. The lobby is dark, drawing attention to the bright lights of the machines. Once a customer sits down at a machine, it has blinders on both sides, preventing one from seeing the rest of the world. The acoustic design prevents much sound from other machines from getting into the little cocoon that the casino has built for the player, and the darkness of the lobby prevents any distractions from entering the visual field. The viewer is engrossed in a light and sound show that can continue forever given just a few more dollars. The technology creates a capitalist oasis of calm where consequences can be delayed forever, where all that matters are the odds, but also where the odds carry no significance at all. It is undeniable that casino slot machines are pieces of artfully and methodically crafted design–they serve their intended purpose to a problematic degree. This uncomfortable reality, that art and design can be used to ends that stand in contradiction to our moral convictions, reframes design as simply one tool in an ideological process. There is something, at least to me, deeply compelling about art and design primarily for an ulterior motive. Propaganda, in my mind, is some of the most interesting design because it persuades not with rational argument, but with gentle, unspoken, unnoticed coaxing. The thicket of influences that a propaganda artist must wrestle with is dense and unforgiving. I’m not entirely sure what I feel about this value-agnostic view of design. I think, at the very least, we must be careful to not equate artful design with moral good. On the other hand, perhaps the designer need not be perfect themselves to produce design that is beautiful, artful, and functional.