Enter the “parking lot”
tl;dr a list of random humor tech ideas without a home
[List-icles - so hot right now]
Asha: Since Joselyn and I are about to head into spring break, we wanted to share a list of five random, fun ideas we have come up with so far this year related to humorous technology. These ideas are things that we’ve discussed for a minute or two in our meetings or over Slack. Get ready for the impractical, nonsensical, etc.
We’re sharing these ideas in the spirit of celebrating the things that we find humorous, and who knows — maybe they will plant a seed with you that blooms.
Joselyn: Random idea #1: A study of all the passive ways people tell each other how they’re really feeling. Our study plan:
1a. The psychology of magnetic fridge poetry
1b. Passive aggressive post it notes
1c. Amazon reviews
Asha: Yes! Really feeling the magnetic fridge poetry. May or may not have seen some very interesting word pairings in our graduate student lounge recently.
Random idea #2: A robot/assistant that is always referencing songs. Whenever you say 4+ words in sequence that happen to be contained in a song lyric, the assistant starts singing that song. Based on my own response when Joselyn casually said “the space between x and y” in a sentence. Cue the Dave Matthews Band.
Joselyn: What about an assistant that is just always randomly breaking into Dave Matthews Band? Too much or not enough?
Random idea #3. If your computer had a work mode and a home mode. You come home and your desktop wallpaper has changed, different lighting is on, soft music playing, and your computer could hand you the virtual equivalent of a glass of wine (or beverage of your choice). Shouldn’t our devices be able to adapt their personas contextually?
Asha: I would personally love a vacation mode, that forbids me from checking Slack (#codependent).
Random idea #4: A mini bank vault wheel that you must interact with when you log in/out of any online financial accounts. Future post coming on meaningful interactions and identity, but just picture if you will, one of these bad boys on a hard drive.
Joselyn: I would think twice about transferring my money to a Nigerian prince, that’s for sure.
Random idea #5: Slap technology. You must slap your wifi router to reset it. You must slap your printer after you reinsert the paper correctly before it starts again. Let’s channel our aggression towards technological inconveniences for good!
Asha: And there you have it! I promised this list would be random and I hope we delivered. We’d love to hear your own weird, interesting, potentially impractical ideas below in the comments!
Bits and Giggles is a design research series featuring conversations between Carnegie Mellon University Human-Computer Interaction researchers Asha Toulmin and Joselyn McDonald.
