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Why are WiFi Routers So Darned Ugly?

It's got to be the least attractive object in your home

By Rain Noe - December 22, 2020

in Object Culture

Most of us want internet, but few of us covet a router. It's got to be the ugliest thing in your home. The only visual indication I want to see on a router is WORKING/NOT WORKING, and the only physical interaction I want is a large, easy-to-locate reset button. Other than that, I'd prefer they were invisible or at least, unobtrusive.

Instead they scream for our attention. There seem to be at least seven guidelines that designers of routers follow:

1. Take a geometric shape, then warp it, so it looks like you earned that design degree.

2. Add facets, the more the better.

3. Add facets and a splash of a hi-tech color.

4. Add facets and attention-getting vents.

5. Mold decorative grooves into at least one face.

6. Use multiple surface textures, matte, shiny, vented, etc.

7. People might be tempted to tuck this behind a couch, so make sure it draws attention to itself.

8. Combine all seven of the guidelines above.

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Michael Crumpton

3 years ago

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Nobody wants to actually see a router. I don't understand why nobody has made a router that is also a lamp, or a table, or a light switch or some other thing that you have around your house. All of the design examples above are hideous and I would rather put them inside a paper bag then have to see them..

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Nathan D.

3 years ago

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Most people use whatever their ISP gives them. Professionals are not buying consumer hardware. These are marketed exclusively to morbidly obese video game addicts with closets full of KMFDM t-shirts and dakimakura who need to upload pictures of their "EDC loadouts" sprawled out across their grandma's craft table at the maximum possible speed. Taste left that equation long ago and it's never coming back.

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Sam Ley

3 years ago

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This is where some of the commercial/soho world is doing much better - crazy routers don't appeal to people who actually have to manage them, or hide them in a commercial space.

Example - Ubiquiti In-Wall Access Point - these screw onto a standard in-wall wiring box, and give you a wifi access point as well as a small gigabit switch with POE. The unit itself is powered by POE, so no power cables. The "digital camo" skin is a bit much, but the white or black skins would go with most environments: https://inwall-hd.ui.com/

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John Kestner

3 years ago

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A more substantial post might mention the functional requirements of routers, such as heat dissipation and radio range. While they could certainly look nicer, many of the clean-looking ones like Google's cylinders don’t have the same performance, and counter that with a mesh network architecture. Let’s not perpetuate the stereotype of snooty industrial designers caring only about the looks.

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- Richard Kuchinsky
  
  John Kestner
  
  3 years ago
  
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  Design on these maybe done by “designers”. It you can pretty much tell it’s marketing asking for the ugly.
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Anders H

3 years ago

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Haha love this post. Next step is to contact one of these designers and let them tell they're story. What was the design brief and how much creative freedom did they have?

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E. Agle

3 years ago

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ROLF! ... SOOO TRUE!
I'm in IT since 1995 and they have become even more ugly.
The good ones of today do look like '80 back to the future fails.

I've a tiny travel one for IOT and kids in the living room ... but as it misses antenna's it's not very powerful.
And separate an ugly very powerful one in the closet for work usage everywhere in the rest of the house.

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