It seemed like such a good idea in theory.
For client Borders, design studio Firstborn created the Gift Squad, a site that aims to make gift-choosing easier but feels more like a horrifying attack by the characters adults find soothing for children but that actually populated our nightmares.
We dug the idea of an elf-chat. That could work. But Gift Squad asks a bunch of confusing and seeming unrelated questions generated by nothing that appears to be human. And along the way you’re bounced across five other vapidly-happy “experts” (the nutcracker, the teddy bear, etc) on this quest that’s starting to feel like the search for the holy grail – and all you want is for some human being playing elf to say “I know what to get your mom! She’ll love a box of truffles from Borders! Would you like to order now?” or something similarly simple.
Do we ask so much?
