Interaction - Bachelors

EIGHTBALL by Isaac Shea

Isaac Shea's EIGHTBALL asks the question; "could a painful workout bring friends together?" Turns out, it can - having something to point at and hate can be a really good bonding experience. Everyone pushes themselves to work harder when they're having fun, even if that "fun" looks like doing forty burpees in a single workout.

Isaac Shea

A man using EIGHTBALL, with the caption "This sucks. I love it."

Better, Together.

EIGHTBALL is a spherical device that scans cards, each with the name and instruction for an exercise. Every time you shake the ball, it picks a random exercise, and a random number of sets to do. You and your group of friends then do that exercise, and repeat until you give up. That’s right, the only exit is failure. A twist on the classic “magic eight ball”, this is the holy hand grenade of a painful workout – complete with tradable cards so your Pokémon-loving nerd friends can join in too. It really does have something for everyone.
The goal is to create an environment that encourages social interaction while working out. Everyone pushes themselves to work harder when they’re having fun, even if that “fun” looks like doing forty burpees in a single workout. Exercising like this alone is awful, and doing it together is still awful. But, you’re with friends, so you’re all dealing with it together. EIGHTBALL is a centrepiece for conversation, and a fantastic recipient for insults (it doesn’t have emotions, unlike most of your friends). It’s a tactile experience, and is a fantastic social ice-breaker – it is, after all, hard to preserve any sense of dignity whilst fighting for your life.

Isaac Shea

I'm a software developer and interaction designer based in Brisbane, Australia. My passion is building products that are both beautiful and functional.