Our smartphones, computers, smart watches, and all of the other electronics we’re surrounded with daily are indisputably helpful. But they also cause an effect that we probably didn’t anticipate at the beginning of the technology age: technology overload. You know the feeling you get when you find yourself picking up your phone out of habit, then you’re not sure why you’re holding it? The separation anxiety you feel when you can’t check your email? The complete horror that wells up inside of you when your internet service is down for a few hours? That’s a bona fide tech addiction, and a surprising number of us are afflicted with it.

Greater Than is a concept from marketing and design company Code and Theory. It was developed in response to a request from Co.Design to come up with a wearable device that moves beyond the current generation of smart watches and other wearables we suddenly find ourselves immersed in. The small object starts out looking like a stick made of rubber and aluminum. Its shape, according to Code and Theory, is reminiscent of a candy bar to symbolize its ability to provide “a moment of indulgence.”

When you feel yourself getting a bit overwhelmed by the world around you, you twist the top portion of the bar until it forms a right angle (tipped to the side, it forms a “>” or “greater than” sign). The device fits on your ear, where only the rubber portion actually touches your skin. It isn’t overly designed, and it certainly doesn’t try to blend in or disappear into your physiology. It’s a statement piece that tells other people you’re taking a break from them and everything else for a few minutes.

But what does the odd object actually do? The device contains a tiny EEG sensor that measures your brainwaves and a bone-conduction speaker plays an appropriate music loop to bring your mind to a calm state. The sounds are meant to induce theta brain rhythms, those deliciously meditative brainwaves that occur when you are exceptionally relaxed or drowsy. Greater Than is meant to be worn for just a few minutes at a time, in contrast to our other gadgets which we are expected to have attached to our bodies at all times. When you’ve had your 10 to 30 minutes of velvety deep-brain relaxation, the device twists back into a stick and charges in a cup on your desk, getting ready for the next time your brain needs a micro-vacation.

(via: Co.Design)

The post The Anti-Gadget Gadget: Put it On and Tune the World Out first appeared on Gajitz.

We could all use a little less stress at work, but for a lot of people that stress leads to serious consequences. Product designer Tomomi Sayuda knows those consequences first-hand: her father committed suicide in 1995 due to work-related stress. Her Desktop Fireworks installation art is a fun reminder that we all need a bit of a break in the midst of a pressure-filled day.

Desktop Fireworks is an office desk set that looks pretty mundane on the surface. There are a set of drawers, a mug, a pencil cup, some binders, a memo board, and a tape dispenser. And then there’s that big red button that practically screams “Push Me!”

In a moment of mounting stress, the worker pushes the button to unleash a short but sweet stress-relieving party for one. Disco lights flash, confetti shoots up, bubbles waft around, and for a few brief moments the office seems like an ultra-exclusive club and you’re the only one who got in.

The installation might be humorous in nature, but it is a reminder to everyone that work isn’t everything. You need to indulge your human side by having some fun during the work day, even if it is just for a few minutes. The effect of this little mini-break can be surprisingly positive on a stressed-out office worker.

The post Disco for One: A Stress-Relieving Office Desktop Party first appeared on Gajitz.

Sitting all day isn’t great for you – our sedentary lifestyles have recently been called even more dangerous than smoking. One of the more popular ways to combat this sitting epidemic is to work at a standing desk. While this method is excellent for your health, most standing desks are ridiculously expensive.

The StorkStand makes standing desks affordable for everyone by using something you’ve already got but don’t need if you’re going to start standing up at your job: your desk chair. The StorkStand is a platform that attaches to the back of your chair to provide a stable work surface complete with an iPhone holder.

It works on any office chair that can be raised to the appropriate height. The mechanism is quite simple: the end nearer to the user rests on the chair’s back and two braces hold it steady. A strap provides stability and security so your expensive laptop doesn’t go tumbling to the ground. With a weight capacity of 50 pounds, you can even put a few more things on the StorkStand with no worries.

Since most office chairs have wheels, it’s safe to say that the StorkStand makes your workstation easily portable. When you aren’t using it, its compact folded size and light weight (a smidge more than four pounds) make it easy to carry between work and home, or store it between your sitting desk and the wall until you need it again.

Multiple degrees of adjustment let you choose the right position for your roving desktop. The clever designers behind the product have made sure that weight is evenly distributed so you don’t have to worry about your chair tipping over while it’s got your office tools all over it. StorkStand’s Kickstarter campaign was a success, and the company is now taking $199 pre-orders for handy portable standing desk.

The post Genius Standing Desk Latches Onto Existing Office Furniture first appeared on Gajitz.

If there’s one thing that’s remained constant about the human imagination over the last few centuries, it’s that we dearly love envisioning the future. This endearing human quality was never more pronounced than in the golden age of wacky technology predictions, stretching from approximately the 1930s to the 1960s. The future was wide open and we really had no practical idea of what to expect, so we simply started making up the wildest futuristic scenarios possible.

The future office was a particularly intriguing concept, since it was widely assumed that (thanks to automation) most people would no longer have to work by the 21st century. Therefore, the futuristic office was often populated by one lonely man who spent his day pushing buttons and observing screens full of information.

The style for the office of the future seems to have been that particular type of futuristic where everything has rounded corners and is made of plastic. Luckily for us, most 21st century offices shy away from that aesthetic entirely.

How far off were the predictions for the workplace of yesterday’s tomorrow? Unlike the futuristic drawings and renderings of previous decades, many of us continue to work in the service sector and there are still humans doing manual labor. Most of us are still waiting to be replaced by robots so we can spend every day at the beach.

But the lone person sitting in an office and pressing buttons all day isn’t too far off. Most offices can be staffed by a minimal number of people, and those people do tend to spend a large amount of time watching screens and pressing buttons (or tapping keys). Sadly, the robot assistants and radio-controlled everything are still missing…but we do have Chatroulette, so it kind of evens out.

The post 5 Wacky Retrofuturistic Visions of 21st Century Office Life first appeared on Gajitz.