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Clickers, Reimagined: Familiar Favourites Made to Click
Updated: 22 hours ago
Singapore themed gifts and souvenirs.
There is something satisfying about pressing a button.
The movement. The small resistance beneath your finger. The click that follows.
Mechanical switches are usually hidden beneath the keys of a keyboard. At WAI, we started wondering what might happen if the key itself became something more familiar.
A kopi cup. An iced gem biscuit. An egg tart. A slice of kaya toast.
That small idea became our growing collection of clickers — tactile objects that pair mechanical switches with miniature versions of familiar favourites, turning things we recognise into something we can interact with.
Some sit individually in the palm of your hand. Others bring several clicks together to recreate an entire scene, from a kopitiam breakfast to a plate of colourful iced gems.
They are little objects made to press, carry, display and keep.
Familiar things, reimagined with a click.
What Is a Mechanical Switch Clicker?
At its simplest, a clicker is a small tactile object built around a mechanical switch.
Press down and the switch moves beneath your finger before returning to its original position, producing the familiar click associated with a mechanical keyboard.
But unlike a keyboard, a clicker does not need to type anything.
The interaction itself becomes the function.
At WAI, we pair these switches with miniature keycaps inspired by familiar objects, foods and everyday details. The result sits somewhere between a desk object, miniature collectible and tactile accessory — something you can interact with as much as you can look at.
Instead of letters and numbers, the keys might take the shape of kaya toast, kopi cups, iced gem biscuits, egg tarts or pineapple tarts.
The mechanical switch remains familiar.
What sits on top becomes something entirely different.
From Keyboard Key to Familiar Object
Keycaps are normally designed to disappear into a larger keyboard.
For our clickers, we approached them as miniature objects in their own right.
A kopi cup becomes more than the key labelled with a letter. Its familiar shape, handle and floral details become part of the object you press.
An iced gem becomes a tiny biscuit with a colourful piped icing top.
An egg tart becomes a small pastry sitting beneath your fingertip.
The idea is simple: take something familiar and give it another way to be experienced.
These objects are not intended to be exact replicas at a smaller scale. Details are simplified, proportions are adjusted and familiar features are emphasised so that each piece still feels recognisable in miniature.
And then we add the click.
A Kopitiam Breakfast, Made Interactive
Some familiar things make the most sense together.
Kaya toast. Kopi. Half-boiled eggs. Dark soy sauce and pepper.
Individually, each is recognisable. Together, they form one of Singapore's most familiar breakfast rituals.
The Kaya Toast Set Clicker brings those four parts together across four mechanical switches: a kaya toast keycap, a kopi cup, half-boiled eggs and a small plate with dark soy sauce and pepper.
It turns the breakfast set into something you can interact with.
Press the kopi. Click the kaya toast. Move from one part of breakfast to another.
The switches give each miniature object a subtle tactile movement while the four-piece arrangement keeps the familiarity of the complete kopitiam set.
It is still recognisably breakfast — just no longer one you eat.
Instead, it becomes a small desk object designed to stay within reach.
Childhood Snacks at Your Fingertips
Iced Gem Clickers by WAI 
Pineapple Tart Clicker by WAI 
Kopi Cup Clicker
Not every clicker needs four keys. Some familiar objects work best on their own.
Iced gems, egg tarts and pineapple tarts have each been reimagined as individual clickers, turning small foods into equally small interactive objects.
The appeal lies partly in the scale.
These are already familiar as things held between our fingers, picked from a plate or reached for from a biscuit tin. Recreating them as miniature clickers keeps that sense of interaction, but changes what happens when you touch them.
Instead of taking a bite, you press. The iced gem clicks. The tart moves beneath your finger.
A familiar snack becomes a small tactile object for the desk, bag or wherever it finds a place.
Four Clicks on a Familiar Plate
As the collection grew, we wanted the clicker itself to become more adaptable.
That led us back to another familiar everyday object: the enamel plate.
Recognised for its simple shape, raised rim and practical form, enamelware has appeared across dining tables, kitchens and food stalls for generations.
For the Enamel Plate Clicker Base, we reimagined the plate as a base for four mechanical switches.
The plate no longer holds food.
It holds keycaps. Four of them.
This creates a small interchangeable system where compatible keycaps can be added, removed and rearranged depending on what you want on the plate.
One day it might hold four colourful iced gems.
Another might bring together kopi and tarts.
Or a completely different combination of familiar favourites.
Change the Menu
Interchangeability became an important part of the idea.
The keycaps used across our clicker collection are designed around MX-style (+) stems, allowing compatible pieces to be removed and swapped.
That means the object does not always have to stay exactly as it arrived.
Pick four favourites. Arrange them on the plate.
Change one. Change all four. Make another combination.
The Enamel Plate Clicker Base turns the collection into something closer to a little menu — one that can change as new keycaps and familiar objects are introduced.
The click stays the same. What you press can keep changing.
Iced Gems, Served Differently
The Iced Gem Enamel Plate Clicker Set brings this idea together in one complete arrangement.
Four miniature iced gems sit across four switches on the enamelware-inspired plate.
The original biscuit is already playful: a small crisp base topped with brightly coloured piped icing. Recreated as keycaps, those colours and shapes become particularly suited to mixing, arranging and pressing.
Four iced gems.
One little plate.
Each one its own click.
The result is somewhere between a plate of childhood biscuits and a small mechanical object — familiar enough to recognise immediately, but different enough to invite a second look.
More Than Something to Fidget With
Mechanical clickers are sometimes described simply as fidget toys.
The repetitive action can certainly be satisfying. There is something naturally appealing about pressing a switch and feeling it return beneath your finger.
But we think of WAI clickers a little more broadly.
They can sit on a desk as tactile objects.
They can be displayed as miniature collectibles.
Some can be carried as keychains or bag charms.
Their keycaps can move between compatible clicker bases and mechanical keyboards.
And sometimes they are simply small objects you press because the click feels good.
There does not need to be much more to it.
The interaction is intentionally simple.
Press.
Click.
Release.
Repeat whenever you feel like it.
Familiar Favourites, Made Interactive
Many of the things we design at WAI begin with the same question:
What else could this familiar object become?
A kaya toast can become a keychain.
A kopi cup can become a magnet.
An iced gem can become a keycap.
Clickers introduce another possibility.
They allow the familiar object to respond.
There is movement beneath it. Resistance when you press it. A small sound when the switch activates.
The object is no longer only something to recognise, carry or display.
It becomes something to interact with.
That small difference opens up another way for us to revisit everyday objects — not simply by recreating what they look like, but by considering what they might feel like to use in a completely different context.
Made to Click, Carry and Keep
Our clicker collection continues to grow alongside the familiar things that inspire it.
Some begin with Singapore food and childhood snacks. Others may begin with an everyday object whose shape, story or function feels worth revisiting.
What connects them is the same idea.
Take something familiar.
Look at it again.
Give it another purpose.
And sometimes, make it click.
Explore WAI Clickers — familiar favourites reimagined as mechanical switch clickers, desk objects and miniature collectibles made to press, carry and keep.
Shop the collection — https://www.thewaicompany.com/clickers
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