It's been 6-months since I've been toying with the idea of buying a stick vacuum cleaner for home. Especially, after I saw Sir James Dyson's reveal of the pencil vac. Slimmest stick vacuum cleaner from Dyson. More than the cleaning, utilitarian device, I thought of it as another gadget but with challenges. Will I really be using it that frequently? By frequently, I mean even once every 3 months? I was not sure. So, we didn't get it.
I think robovacs will make more sense. They should be able to climb stairs, clean every floor surface there is in the house and stay invisible. Now I've moved on to considering robotic floor cleaners. But before that, I wanted to document a couple of random ideas for the stick vacuum cleaner.
Imagine if every time you vacuumed a room, your stick vacuum displayed an experience bar slowly filling up. This experience taps into our need to see our effort accumulate into visible progress. People are far more likely to repeat behaviours when the results are measurable. The human brain dislikes ambiguity. When the bar fills, you feel like you’ve levelled up.
Instead of each pass of cleaning being identical, what if vacuuming multiple zones in quick succession triggered combo streaks? We love building momentum; it makes ordinary actions feel like flow. In games, combo mechanics keep players locked in, rewarding continuous engagement with exponential payoff.
A vacuum could occasionally surprise you with achievements like “Under-Couch Explorer” or “Edge-Master” when you clean neglected spots. People enjoy feeling that they’ve discovered something secret or rare. Cleaning is usually predictable, but by embedding small surprises, the act of vacuuming becomes exploration.
Instead of a flat routine, the vacuum could run monthly challenges like “Clean 5 corners you usually miss.” We thrive when finite, time-bound quests give structure to otherwise repetitive activities. Cleaning turns from obligation into event where you don’t want to miss the quest.
Vacuuming feels like an errand and nothing heroic. But what if the vacuum reframed every session in terms of the bigger picture? For example, “Today you removed 30% of airborne allergens from your home.” This taps into our need for doing something larger than ourselves. A mundane task suddenly connects to health, family, and safety.
What if family members could see who contributed most to cleaning this week, displayed as a light, friendly leaderboard? Humans crave recognition, especially for invisible work like cleaning. Turning this into a light competition makes vacuuming visible and fun. Wife's happy too!
What if each cleaning cycle wasn’t a boring repetition but part of an ongoing story arc? “The battle against the dust empire: Chapter 12.” Narratives give structure to otherwise flat sequences of tasks. Games teach us that we crave not just success, but stories of success. Adding narrative to vacuuming makes every cleaning run feel like an episode in a larger saga and will encourage the younger ones in the house to actively do it.
Game designers talk about “juiciness”. It is the satisfying pop of feedback when you collect coins. A vacuum could replicate this with LED flashes or subtle sound cues when it picks up large dust clusters. Humans crave immediate sensory confirmation that their action mattered.
What if the vacuum displayed not only what you’ve cleaned, but what you would have left behind if you stopped now? Humans hate losing more than we love winning. Framing unfinished cleaning as “loss” makes us want to push further.
What if the vacuum tracked how efficiently you cleaned compared to last time? Replay value is why people grind games: each run is a chance to improve and chase a higher score. Showing your efficiency percentage or time shaved off makes each cleaning cycle a performance. Suddenly, vacuuming feels like chasing a high score.