Staples’ Easy Button is an inexpensive toy that represents a perfect button

As far as buttons go, there’s just as much known as Staples’ “Easy Button” – a bright, Staples red button that appeared in a series of advertising campaigns in 2005. The ads were so popular that Staples eventually sold real replica versions of the Easy Button shortly after they launched – and it has since sold millions of desktop toys.

The fictional Easy Buttons that appear in the ads possess magical features that allow the user to solve their problems (usually office supply related) with the push of a button. The sad irony, of course, is that the actual version of the product is significantly more disappointing. When you press it, a rain pressure rink is not invoked or the Great Wall is raised to defend against an invading army. Instead, it just plays a recording of the company’s slogan “It was easy” when you press the (satisfactorily clickable) button.

Beyond the metafictional context of Staples ads, the idea of ​​a magic big red button you can press to solve a problem is one that conforms to the concept of hardware design. Sure, the real world Easy Button is just a cute toy to leave on your desk or annoy your co-workers. But almost every hardware button that exists is born of the same ethos as the more magical version of the ad: it’s a physical object designed for users to push, push, switch or rotate to solve a specific problem loose or a task.

The Easy Button only represents a world in which our buttons have been raised to a higher level. One thing where the things that buttons can do, or the problems they can alleviate, are not limited by small things like electricity, programming or the physical laws. Problem where no problem is too big or complicated that it can not be solved with one push of the button.

But the journey of the Easy Button from the marketing of gimmicks to the real product does not end with a crazy accessory, because the internet took the original idea of ​​the Easy Button and ran with it, with a number of tutorials available on how to to hack the $ 9 toy. Most common hacks revolve around modifying the hardware with a microphone to record your own keywords so that the can of the Easy Button speaker can be sprayed.

Other hacks go further, such as installing an Arduino microcontroller that can connect the once useless button to a computer or custom hardware setting. And with that kind of hardware and a few programming chops, the sky is the limit for what you can do Easy Button, such as charging your computer, ending a Zoom call, or even ordering more paper from Staples.

It’s still not the level of literal magic that Staples promises in his ads, but after years, the unifying forces of a marketing campaign turned into an office toy have become a do-it-yourself tool, become a circle: ‘ an infinitely programmable button that, in theory, does almost anything at the touch of a button. And really, what can you ask for another button?