All too often in the CIID studio, students forget to take much-needed breaks. A group, especially in the face of a deadline, tends to work too hard – often becoming stressed and unable to look at their work objectively. A small break – even just a moment of laughter – can help immensely to ease nerves and enable people to work more effectively.
What is Lolly?
Lolly is a proposed solution to the problem of how to remind students – in a fun and playful manner – to take quick breaks so that they may return to their work with a fresh mind.
She is your permanent team member – a small device that sits quietly on your desk to monitor you while you are working. She comes equipped with a microphone, 360 deg camera and a projector. She listens as you work, and when she detects laughter, she records video of you and stores it as a gif. If she notices you and your team have not laughed for one hour, she will project a gif on the ceiling of the last time each of your team members laughed.
Laughter strengthens the bond between people, as people feel free and comfortable with one another’s company when sharing a chuckle. It is also contagious and makes others laugh even if the joke isn’t all that funny. The dopamine released on laughing helps in decreasing anxiety and stress levels.
Lolly is designed with the metaphor of a surprise birthday party in mind – an unexpected reminder that indicates fun is about to follow. Since laughing at yourselves never grows old, Lolly projects you in the familiar form of a Vine or Boomerang-esque gif. Her form of an emoji is meant to evoke a cheery playfulness that prevents her from seeming too much like an alarm clock.
This was a one week concept exploration done during the course on Interaction Design Foundations at CIID, with teammates Anna Smeragliuolo and Ubaldo Andrea Desiato.