“The Helping Hand” (2022) is a film about an employee who is issued a mysterious device (the rehab-inator) by his manager that is designed to help him quit his smoking addiction. The employee is handed a suspension warning letter from his boss, which brought him deeper into his smoking habit and addiction. The company realises his issue and decides to issue to him the rehab-inator. The device is successful in preventing him from smoking but begins to wreak havoc in his daily life and tasks. At the end of the film, the employee abandons the device in secret.
The film points towards a certain irony of innovations, and the current direction of robotics and animatronics. While most research gears towards human-system interaction and solving problems with technology, many have forgotten the human-centric perspective and neglected the user experience. Perhaps moving forward, it is worth considering the user experience as opposed to focusing on the innovative aspects of design.
