If this product had a personality, it would be a complete douchebag.
This is the only product I regret getting involved with, but I did, so here we are. The site is no longer live, but you can see an archived version of it below.
Minty Ninja allowed you to send personalised message and chewing gum to someone you know.
Sounds harmless, right?
Except, that it allowed you to do so annonimously and the message told your friend how smelly their breath is.
To be honest, when a friend pitched the idea to me and asked me if I'd be interested in designing it, I didn't think hard enough about the effect the product could have on recipients of the message.
The idea sounded fun and I looked forward to writting some cheeky copy. That is one part of the project I'm proud of and had fun doing.
I think I have a pretty good moral compass. I've always worked on products I could support from an ethical point of view. This was the first and only time I compromised my design ethics.
The experience has thought me, first hand, the importance of stopping to think about products before getting involved with them.
I decided to pull out of the team in 2016 having explained my rationale to them. Thankfully, they all understood and together we decided to pull the product down.