Design Strategy in the Age of Intelligent Objects.
The toothbrush is learning.
Not in a metaphorical sense, but literally:
tracking your brushing patterns, sensing pressure, mapping teeth, and adapting over time.
It’s part of a growing class of everyday products; fridges, lamps, speakers, even coffee mugs—capable of processing data, forming “memories,” and refining their behavior.
Meanwhile, we humans are increasingly outsourcing our own thinking. We let navigation apps choose our routes, streaming platforms select our entertainment, and algorithmic feeds filter our news. This isn’t inherently bad, tools have always extended our capabilities. But the nature of that extension is changing.
For the first time, the tool may know more about the task than the person using it.
A U.S. national park ranger once explained why designing a bear-proof trash bin is so difficult:
“There’s a considerable overlap between the smartest bears and the dumbest tourists.”
It was meant as a joke, but it now feels uncomfortably relevant.
In the near future, we may discover a similar overlap between the smartest toothbrush and the most distracted human.
The Near Future of Smarter-Than-You Products
In the coming decade, connected devices won’t just assist us, they’ll begin to negotiate with us.
Your fridge may refuse to reorder soda if your health data flags a risk.
Your car might ignore your request to speed, citing local safety conditions.
Your lighting system could dim the room to encourage sleep, overriding your preference for a late-night Netflix binge.
From a design perspective, these are not simple “smart” functions. They are decisions, value-driven choices made by the object, often in the user’s best interest, but sometimes in conflict with their immediate desires.
This shift changes the role of product design entirely. The designer is no longer just shaping interfaces, but mediating the relationship between human autonomy and object intelligence.
The Risks of Outsourcing Too Much
When everyday products are more observant, more consistent, and sometimes more rational than we are, it’s tempting to let them lead. The toothbrush will always remember which tooth you’ve neglected; the fridge will never “forget” your diet plan.
But this reliance carries a subtle risk: atrophy of personal judgment.
If the fridge always decides, we lose the habit of deciding. If the toothbrush always knows, we stop noticing.
The result could be a population highly efficient in operating devices, but less capable of independent reasoning, the very overlap the park ranger warned about, now playing out across our entire product ecosystem.
Designing for the Human-Object Relationship
If we accept that many objects will soon surpass us in narrow intelligence, the question becomes:
How do we prepare for it?
From a design strategy standpoint, three principles emerge:
- Transparent Decision-Making
Products must explain their choices, not just enforce them. This preserves the user’s understanding of cause and effect. - Negotiable Autonomy
Systems should allow for intentional overrides—not because the object is wrong, but because the human must remain practiced in making decisions. - Cognitive Reciprocity
Design should encourage the user to learn from the product, not just be served by it.
A toothbrush that improves your technique is valuable; one that makes you forget how to brush is dangerous.
What the World Will Look Like
Imagine a home where each device has its own perspective, shaped by your data and its own learning. Your appliances become a distributed network of advisors, sometimes cooperative, sometimes argumentative.
Conversations might sound like this:
You: Order more ice cream.
Fridge: Your last blood sugar reading was high. Please confirm override.
Or:
You: Make the coffee stronger.
Machine: Based on your sleep tracker, I recommend the medium setting today.
This isn’t science fiction; it’s already emerging in scattered prototypes. The near future is a negotiation between human preference and object intelligence.
The toothbrush may not yet be smarter than you. But it’s learning faster than you think.
And if bears and humans can meet at the same level of trash-bin comprehension, it’s not impossible to imagine a similar overlap between our own distracted minds and the calm, focused logic of the objects we’ve designed.
The question is not whether products will surpass us in certain areas, they will.
The real design challenge is making sure they help us rise with them,
rather than quietly replacing the need for us to rise at all.
Stay Curious, Stay Innovative.
Ting Ting Zhao
Ting Ting Zhao is a Digital Editor at Apxt. Passionate explorer of the intersection between creativity and technology. With an insatiable curiosity, I decode the complex tapestry of design, brand communication, and emerging technologies. As a seasoned critic and strategist, I’m on a mission to demystify the strategic potential of design in the digital age. Join me as we navigate the ever-evolving landscape, unraveling possibilities, and shaping brands that thrive in the dynamic world of innovation
