Bento
A curated arts, culture & technology digest involving generative media
A multifaceted range of niche interests were shared, including 70’s Italian lamps, design of early Apple computers, post-impressionist art and more. Surprisingly, the more niche the better — it was far easier to curate content for specific topics as broad interests felt too open ended.
Overall, I curated 35 bentos featuring 105 unique pieces of conent. On average, it took 10-15 minutes for each curated digest. Searching for high quality content was hard, especially before refining queries and hand picking through the results (but tools like Exa.ai helped). Knowing little things about each person also helped in cultivating a more personalized experience.
Receiving thoughtful feedback from early testers was such a delight! In particular, Bento’s simplicity and personalization resonated with people.
The overall concept was inspired by Japanese bento boxes — curated sets of varied content that come together as a whole. The modular and flexible design also provided a system and structure for this experiment.