Meet the feeling machines

The Poem/1 AI Clock — Support Matt on Kickstarter!

Generative AI doesn't just give us new ways to design things, it gives us new things to design.

I have a pepper mill at home that I enjoy more than I should. The action is great, it's easy to control the size of the grain, and it's made of cast iron, so it feels good in the hand. There's something about the heft of it, the simplicity of the design, the way the material is always a little colder than everything else in the kitchen. All these things add up to an emotionally charged experience for me. I feel something each and every time I pick it up. Reassurance? Satisfaction? I'm not sure what it is, but it feels good. And that got me thinking.

Creating the equivalent in UX is tricky. We've all enjoyed the unexpected confetti when clicking a button. The first time is great, but it gets a bit annoying. My personal threshold was mid-way celebrations on my tax return. Surprise, but no delight.

I think part of the challenge is that UX easily becomes a very rational process. We often turn feelings into thinking. We understand a user motivation, only to break it down into steps. Tasks we can measure. Stages we can track. It's why someone (quite reasonably) suggests we celebrate the onboarding with confetti, without wondering if it underserves or overlooks the feeling of finally being able play with your new phone.

Before you write strongly worded letters, I know there are examples of great emotional design in UX (yes, hello Apple), but these experiences aren't common. They're certainly not as common as the confetti celebrations, and I'm not sure most come close to the feeling of my cast-iron pepper grinder.

A CAD render of the Poem/1 sitting on a bookshelf. — The Poem/1 AI Clock

So when I saw this clock I got excited.

It's a very clever clock that uses generative AI to create a rhyming couplet that tells you the time. Every minute of every day, forever. It is, in my mind, the same design intention as confetti on your tax return, but, and it's a big but, it's got the enduring quality my cast-iron pepper mill. There's something magical about how each couplet only exists for 60 seconds. Something brilliant in the expectation — what will the clock say next?! But perhaps most important is the simplicity. It isn't a layer of artifice. It's necessary. It's the way you tell the time with this clock. The time itself is written in words, not signaled with numbers, so the poem is essential. I love it. I ordered one, and you should too. Well done Matt Webb.

So while everyone is talking about generative AI reinventing work, speeding everything up, replacing people, and democratizing creativity, we should take some time to consider the new frontiers for design.

Because AI isn't just changing how we design, it's changing what it's possible to design. Before an LLM, the clock above was impossible to make. There are 1440 minutes in a day, more than 10,000 in a week, more than 500,000 in a year. That's too many couplets for anyone to write. It's too complex a task for a simple program to solve. But as Matt says in his video about the clock: it's worth it for the vibes?!

Each couplet makes me feel more than any amount of UX confetti ever could, which is a genuine reason to celebrate.