The Google Gboard Bar is a tongue-in-cheek product created with an elongated construction to offer users an unexpected kind of typing experience. The keyboard comes in at just under 65-inches in length and boasts all the keys on a conventional QWERTY keyboard, but in one long line rather than in rows. This enables the typist to immediately know where a key is located without having to do any searching, while the elongated construction could cause some issues.
The Google Gboard Bar is imagined in use around the house as a place to position chopsticks when not in use, as a handle for a bug catching net and more. The keyboard is a pun on how 'bar' is the next syllable after 'key' in the Japanese word for keyboard.
Key Themes Behind This Trend
- Elongated Keyboard Designs
- As this product proves, there is demand for keyboards that offer a new typing experience, which presents an opportunity for keyboard manufacturers to innovate with elongated designs.
- Single-line Keyboard Designs
- The Gboard Bar's single-line design could be a trend in and of itself, with potential in industries such as mobile device manufacturing, where space-saving design is crucial.
- Functional Novelties
- The use of the Gboard Bar as a household item demonstrates the trend of consumers seeking functional novelties – a trend that presents opportunities for companies in the home goods or novelty items industries.
Where This Applies
- Keyboard Manufacturing
- Keyboard manufacturers could take advantage of the demand for novel typing experiences and introduce new, elongated keyboard designs.
- Mobile Device Manufacturing
- The Gboard Bar's space-saving, single-line design presents an opportunity for mobile device manufacturers to innovate with similar designs.
- Home Goods/novelty Items
- The Gboard Bar’s versatility as a household item demonstrates the potential for novel products with functional uses in the home goods or novelty items industries.
