Ideo have created three conceptual products to make Monday a nicer day

Who likes Monday? No one, that’s who. The weekend’s over, you have to wake up early, go to work and deal with general Monday rubbish.

To offset the misery that is the first day of the week, Ideo NYC have created a conceptual collection of products designed to bring joy to the day. The collection, entitled Monyay! comes on the back of a series of complaints submitted to a New York radio station about places and experiences that could use more joy.

First on the list of remedies is Lolzzz, an alarm clock that attempts to offset the grating sound of Monday’s alarm clock with a child’s joyful laughter. As the clock giggles, it rocks back and fourth. If you want to make it laugh even louder you can tickle its belly button, and to snooze it, you just set it upright again.

To target Sunday night fear Ideo have created the Sincerely app. The app prompts you to record a simple 'thank you' message to someone you care about. On Monday, you get some love back when your friend responds. You can make recordings and listen to responses with a can-and-string phone that connects with bluetooth. A 'tail' for the Sincerely cans wags whenever a new message of gratitude is received.

Last but not least there’s PopUp, a response to the cold and calculating function of calendars. PopUp is an app that looks at your appointments and draws attention to the hidden or overlooked opportunities for joy. It’s all very colourful and animated — it even comes with a device, Notify, that blows bubbles instead of beeping to notify you of any upcoming appointments.

Design is about more than function. As we've seen with the likes of Balance, products can be beautiful and have a social function in the same breath.