In order to get into a playful mood I watched a couple of episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm. After feeling that I had adequately yucked it up, I began work on my mind map.
Mind Map!
First of all, I find it very interesting how often my mind eventually lands on poop. During the mind map, my mind may have wandered a bit too far away from the sinks/basin theme as I was coming up with things such as hair metal and the Mario dance. In case you don't know what the Mario dance is, hopefully this video remind you:
Using the mind map, I did find some ideas that I thought were interesting such as an adjustable height sink (I once lived in an apartment where the sink was about 6 inches too low, which is surprisingly annoying) and hidden drying racks to free up counter space.
In order to generate more ideas, I created an association map.
It was here that I was able to come up with some of my favorite silly ideas. I also found that cross products was helpful in coming up with silly ideas.
Here are my 10 favorite ideas:
1) Screaming food disposal - a must have for horror film fans!
2) DJ Drier - dish cloth that squeaks like a scratching record when drying a dish
3) Pinwheel sprayer - combination of the rinsing sprayer and a pin wheel that spins around when water is flowing
4) Dish Washing MP3 Player - Sensor embedded in the sink that can tell when it is filled water and will play music.
5) Whirlpool drain cover - when draining the liquid this forces the water to circulate around and create a whirlpool
6) Green Slimy Dish Soap - Dish soap that is real gross and gooey when coming out of the bottle
7) Flexible rubber sink - Not very silly but it would be used to prevent dishes from breaking if you drop them.
8) Sneezing sprayer - Sprayer is shaped like a face with the water coming out the nose. Each time you press the lever, it makes a sneezing noise.
9) Robot dish partner - after washing a dish you can hand it to this robotic arm that will rinse and place it on the drying rack for you.
10) Octopus squeeze sprayer - sprayer is an octopus that you can squeeze. The water comes out of the tentacles and they flail around while you are spraying.
What? No hair metal washing sink?
I love your mind map and laughed out loud looking at all of the places you went with it! The sneezing sprayer would be great in a kid's shower along with the slimy green (booger?) soap. A screaming food disposal makes perfect sense, especially when a spoon or diamond ring falls down itand you have to stick your hand in there. My husband would like your MP3 player idea - he can't do the dishes without music. And you can multi-task with the DJ record-scratching dishcloth!
This was loads of fun to read and think about. I can't wait to see where you take it next.
I'm impressed by the sheer number of associations you made on your mind map, and then the organization applied to the second map. It's obvious you put a lot of work into these. There is a good mix of clearly relevant items, and silly items that I think led to some great product ideas. Slimey soap is a neat concept... I'd have liked to see the cross product of evil(?) gnomes and sinks ;)
I have to say, I love the idea of a sneezing sprayer. A great way to make a typical tool into a something fun that can also be used as a decoration object in a bathroom or a room. Your silly ideas definitely kept my brain working as I tried picturing them in action.