I often want to write down things I need to remember on my phone, but, especially if I am in a meeting, texting on my phone can seem rude and inconsiderate. I have tried writing in a notebook instead, so that others know I am not just texting, but then I have to carry it around with me everywhere (along with a pen) which is heavy, and a number of times, I kept leaving it in the wrong bag at home.

My challenge was to design an item to write reminders in that was easy to cary around, had small dimensions, and didn’t need a pen, but was not digital.

I decide that the product should attach to the users wrist so that it was not left behind and so that the top message on the device would be easily seen and the user would be reminded of the top message. The downside of this is that it is visible to others too, and impractical if not seen as stylish, so making the product more subtle or fashionable would be the next steps for this project.

I didn’t want it to be the users’ responsibility to remember to carry around a pen or pencil, so I wanted the product to come with a writing tool attached. Often product with built-in pens have a short lifespan because the pen will inevitably run out and users don’t want to buy another custom pen. I therefore thought of ways of writing that didn’t use ink or granite (pencils have a similar problem to pens and would need sharpening).

I remembered, from childhood, that using anything even mildly sharp, like a coin, on receipt paper creates marks. Receipt paper (thermal paper) is coated with BPA or BPS which reacts to heat or friction. Using this paper rather than regular paper meant that I could just give the user a tooth pick, which theoretically has an infinite life span, and they can write with that. The user just has to replace the paper, which they would have to do anyway if they were writing on regular paper.