Doraemon’s Gadget Lab (Tran) is a playful research paper from CHI 2025, held in Yokohama, Japan. Having grown up watching Japanese cartoon show Doraemon, I did not expect to encounter HCI analysis of its gadgets in the CHI proceedings.
Tran analyses 379 of Doraemon’s gadgets, categorising them into 33 subcategories and 10 higher-level groupings, to examine the human needs they address and their parallels with contemporary technologies.
One of the core findings is that while fundamental human needs remain remarkably stable, the technological forms we use to meet them vary. Doraemon’s gadgets overwhelmingly emphasise tangible, single-purpose interactions, standing in stark contrast to the increasingly abstract, software-heavy, and multifunctional systems that dominate modern computing.
Methodologically, Tran uses a straightforward categorisation and thematic analysis, with technology categories ranging from automation and assistance, to expanding human capabilities, to shaping reality and perception.
A concrete example helps bring this to life. Today, we are seeing real-time translation tools that allow people speaking different languages to communicate synchronously. In Doraemon, the equivalent is the honyaku konnyaku—a translation “gummy” that, once eaten, enables the character to speak and understand all languages. It is playful and speculative, drawing on a simpler, almost child-like conception of innovation that sits outside many of the dominant paradigms and constraints shaping today’s technologies.
Overall, the paper is a rich source of inspiration, showing how a simple method applied to a brilliant topic—via a blue robotic cat—can remind us that interaction design does not have to look the way it currently does.
Brian Grellmann 