It’s hard to imagine greeting Monday with enthusiasm. It signals the end of the weekend and, usually, a return to work. New York design firm IDEO has added some joy to Mondays with a trio of products that are guaranteed to make you smile on that most dreaded of days.

Created for Studio 360’s Redesigns series, the products are referred to collectively as Monyay! Lolzzz, the alarm clock above, starts out your Monday with a hearty laugh. The cute, minimalist timepiece features a curved back and a “bellybutton” on the front.

It wakes you with the sounds of children laughing as it tips back and rolls with laughter, a sound that has been proven to improve the mood. Every Monday brings a new recording of laughter so it’s like a little gift to yourself each week. To increase the volume of the laughter, you tickle the clock’s little bellybutton. To snooze, just set it up on its end.

Getting back into a schedule after a carefree weekend is such a drag. Looking at all of those little boxes with the week’s appointments in them can be daunting, and there’s nothing fun about the standard calendar. PopUp is a colorful calendar app that uses bright, animated polka dots to display your appointments. The app gives you sweet little reminders of how to find joy no matter what you’re doing. You might be having lunch with a new acquaintance (a great chance to make a new friend) or let you know about a lovely piece of public art near your next meeting.

PopUp is accompanied by a whimsical desk accessory that replaces annoying reminder beeps with bubbles. When an appointment is coming up, PopUp blows and releases a bubble. Instead of irritating you with a grating sound, it delights you with a silly, fun visual reminder.

Sincerely is a practice in gratitude that reminds you of everything you’re thankful for. It evokes two sweetly innocent images: the wagging tail of a happy dog and the can-and-string telephones of childhood. The app reminds you to cap off every Sunday evening by recording a message of gratitude to someone you care about. You use the corded can to record a message and the recipient is notified when their can begins wagging its little tail. They can then hold the receiver up to an ear to listen to your words.

Regularly expressing gratitude can actually improve your health and help you live longer, so making a habit of thanking the important people in your life is good for more than strengthening relationships. This tactile method of sending and receiving messages is so much more personal than getting a text or an email. And by ending your Sunday on a note of thanks, you can wake up on Monday morning feeling warm and fuzzy.

The post Impossible Dream: Making Mondays Bearable (and Fun) first appeared on Gajitz.

Who doesn’t love blowing bubbles and then experiencing the pure visceral joy that comes from popping them? That is the idea behind SensaBubble, a multi-sensory mid-air display that combines sight, smell, and the satisfaction of popping bubbles. Designed by Professor Sriram Subramanian of Bristol University, the SensaBubble could be used for marketing, education, gaming, or a number of other applications.

The way the machine works is best described by the video above. Bubbles’ trajectories can be guided by the machine, then tracked so the SensaBubble system can project colors, words, or logos onto the fog-filled bubbles. An optional aroma can be added to the fog to provide another layer of sensory stimulation.

We would love to see this type of system used in everyday life. Imagine how fun it would be to get an email notification in the form of a floating bubble, then pop it with your finger to send it away. For those of us who feel like we’re overloaded with information and notifications all day, every day, this could be a far more relaxing way to get and then release those notifications.

The post Multi-Sensory Bubbles Display Digital Messages, Emit Aromas first appeared on Gajitz.