Clever designs: Top ten alarm clocks
From uberreview The top ten alarm clocks. They rank them by annoyance, but from my perspective these are all clever in some way. Some work better as concepts I’m sure, but they deserve points nonetheless.
A perenial interview question at Microsoft was “design an alarm clock for one of: the blind, the deaf, the stupid, the hungover, the heavy sleeper, or the paranoid.” Many good answers can be found in this review.
The twist (beyond combining constraints, such as stupid and hungover”) was always that the clock had to cost less than $10, but sadly all of the ones listed here are well out of that price range.
The best part is that this has no snooze button :)
Thanks Trevin – you reminded me of my love/hate relationship with Snooze.
I think the snooze button is a perfect metaphor for our non-commital, procastination addicted culture. “I want to get up at 6am!” we say, as we talk on the phone and read e-mail way into the night. Then at 6am, the moment of truth, we say “I didn’t really want to get up at 6am. I *really* meant 6:15am.”
I do use the snooze button, but it’s sort of a warning sign when I do – it really means “I’m not serious about getting up when I say I am”. If I were, I’d go to sleep at a reasonable time and not need the alarm clock altogether.
And who invented the snooze button anyway? I’d love to know.
I love the snooze button, but as you say it’s a symbol of my procrastination. I find myself setting my alarm clock earlier than I need to just so I can get the satisfaction of hitting snooze at least once. There’s something about thinking you are “stealing” more sleep cycles than you’re allowed that really satisfying :)
I have a Scott alarm clock dated 1921 pending; my question does it have any value?