At the tail end of 2022, screenshots of bizarre app features started going viral on Twitter. They rested just on the line between plausible and absurd. Google isn’t going to add punctuality scores to calendar invites, but it could if it wanted to. Or what if Instagram sent a warning if you accidentally like a three year old photo during a late night stalking session? It might actually be useful, as long as the company doesn’t charge you $5 for it.
Soren Iverson is the man behind the memes. As a product designer, Iverson works in one of the more artistic corners of the tech industry. It’s people like Iverson who figure out the look, feel and function of the parts of apps and websites we actually interact with. The work is creative, but it’s serious business when you’re talking about apps with millions of users. “These small improvements can have massive implications when you’re working within a larger ecosystem,” Iverson said.
Iverson started coming up with strange design elements for existing apps and posting them on Twitter to test and invigorate his own creativity. Apps like iMessage, Uber Eats, Tinder, we interact with them so often they can feel like part of our identities. The ideas he posted, the more people responded. Eventually Iverson started a practice of posting one new idea every day.
“I think the mental model I’ve used is if a product manager learned Figma and gave into their most intrusive thoughts,” he said. “For how seriously I take the work that actually gets put into prod, this is a very opposite end of the spectrum. You’re allowed to just throw out ideas even if they’re insane.”
Click through to see some of Iverson’s more unhinged ideas. It’s a reflection of just how weird the internet already is, and a peak at how fun the tech industry could be if it wasn’t, you know, an industry. Iverson posts a new idea everyday on his Twitter account. He’s also got a newsletter and a book in the works.
