Goods on Display

Publication Design + Design research

September - December 2022

Mentor: Sébastien Quéquet

Presented at Junior Research Design Conference 2022, Basel, CH

Goods on Display (GoD) is an examination of the digital personas of cisgender heterosexual men on the dating app Bumble and links them to the Darwinian theory of sexual selection in the realm of a monogamous relationship. It investigates the overarching question of how an image may awaken desire by analysing the design of three key points: Bumble’s ideology, self-representation using portrait photography and pyscho-morphological features of human and animal males. The analysis relies on the primary investigation of 126 profiles of cisgender heterosexual men on Bumble. Using the key elements of a portrait, it found that the profile photographs of men on Bumble meant to showcase themselves were attuned to academically proven preferences of females, as stated by the theory of sexual selection. 

Keywords: Dating apps, Bumble, Portrait, Photography, Darwin, Sexual selection, Beauty, Male persona, Evolution