SURPRISE!

Goal

Inspired by those cute wish sticky notes stuck on lockers during Thanksgiving, we want to extend it to birthday blessings. The goal of the device is to subtly notify others to give out blessings on someone’s birthday in a shared workspace. There is a need for studio mates to give blessings to cheer up each other in the current stressful studio environment. SURPRISE aims to create a warm experience for each individual in the co-working space.

How it works

We defined locker as the channel to communicate this information and facilitate interactions between people. Messages that are displayed on the exterior of the locker invite everyone to look at while what’s inside are only accessible to the owner. We identify the locker as a personal/private space within this public open studio setting and want to use it as a new channel of communicating things that are more intimate in a slower, more ambient and physical way.

If it is someone’s birthday, their locker will light up throughout the day. People who notice the signal can use their phones to create digital written blessings and send them to the birthday person’s locker via thermal receipt printer inside the locker. When the birthday person opens the locker, SURPRISE! They will receive a pile of printed blessings. TADA!