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Of all the things you could design that would be smash hits, here's one that most wouldn't have thought of. The Fidget Cube is an object that does nothing—in the same way that Seinfeld was a show about nothing. Yet they both deliver satisfying mini-experiences:
It's hard to tell if inventors Matthew and Mark McLachlan did this as a lark, and their initial target was just $15,000. But backers have responded in force: Over 50,000 people pledged for the $19 object, landing them nearly $2 million at press time—and there's still 40 days left to pledge.
Here's a question for you: Do you reckon we fidget more today than we did a century ago? Humans have a need to manually manipulate things, and tapping glass rectangles all day isn't very satisfying. I wonder if bygone activities—grinding our own coffee, installing typewriter ribbons, starting the car with a handcrank—ate up all that fidgety energy.
I’m a lapsed industrial designer. I was born in NYC and figured I’d die there, but a few years ago I abandoned New York to live on a farm in the countryside with my wife. We have six dogs.
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Hilarious Fidget Cube Becomes Kickstarter Smash
As an autistic person, these kinds of fidget toys can be very helpful for keeping focus, ironically. I don't care if this was designed as a joke, I genuinely want one! :^)
The cube itself looks like it was made with splines. That alone makes me want to buy.
These are neato too, made out of marble with a few alternative choices: