The Design of Everyday Things

The objects that we surround ourselves with define our experiences and therefore our reality. Time is one of those realities. For ages, we have been obsessed with time keeping. If the amount and variety of devices is any indication, the tracking of time is almost fetishistic. No wonder there's such a great market for vintage mechanical watches and clocks. They are not just functional but also objects of beauty and self-definition.

We're now able to track time digitally using electronic devices, and so it is no longer necessary to create separate systems like watches and clocks. That doesn't stop us from messing around with timekeeping. I recently obtained a device called TickTime that allows you to navigate time using buttons, touch, and tangible manipulation. It is based on the pomodoro technique, which is a productivity technique to focus your attention for specific amounts of time (usually 25 mins), interrupted by (5-minute) breaks.

Note: My pomodoro alarm just went off as I write this, so I'll stop, go do some basic task and get back to writing in a bit.

I'm back. The TickTime cube beeped when the five-minute break was up, and automatically started a countdown for another 25 minutes.

The TickTime cube has several numbers on each side, which represent the number of minutes for that particular countdown when you grab the cube and place it on that side face up. That's it. All you need to do is flip the cube to the appropriate side, and the countdown begins. You can also access other functions (like pause) with four discrete buttons on one side. It also has touch controls for functions like pomodoro mode. I don't know who came up with the original idea for this device, but whomever it was, that man is a genius. Or woman, naturally. 😘

I'm not going to do a review of this product because there are plenty videos on Youtube that demonstrate the various features (and am not getting paid enough for the infomercial). I just want to laud it from a more philosophical timekeeping perspective. The idea of manipulating time in this manner, at a reasonably affordable price, is nothing short of intoxicating. There's something magical about manipulating the abstract by grasping it. Tangible technology has come a long way in a few years, and if this little cube is any indication, we're entering an era unlike any other.

The title of this post is borrowed from a book of the same name, which should be in the bookshelf of every product designer out there.