Experience Design, Explorations, Featured Explorations, Service Design

Recently I’ve been having some problems with my cell phone, but who hasn’t, right? Whenever I send out a text message, my friends receive 4 or 5 duplicates of that same message.

After getting multiple complains from many people and becoming hesitant when sending out any sort of text, I was finally fed up enough to go to the phone company and ask them what the problem was.

The local phone company kiosk I visited told me to directly call the phone company on my cell phone and that they would re-set my phone system. As far as I can remember, the number to call from your cell phone to reach the service provider has always been *611. It may have been the sales associate handwriting, or perhaps I was crossed-eyed for a split second, but the sheet of paper with the “*611” on it clearly read “*Cell” to me. I started to think, was it coincidence or were these three seemingly random numbers strategically chosen to subliminally remind us what the numbers mean?

I started to think that all of the numbers were strategically chosen to carry some form meaning or association. Another example I thought of was “411” the telephone directory. Did you know that “411” can also be read as “ALL”? I have done some light research, but I haven’t found any hard evidence that suggests this was deliberate. I however, would love to talk to the person who picked the numbers to see if it was a coincidence or not.

- Jess