For eight million daily active users, Slack — the chat hub preferred by companies like Airbnb and Target — has become synonymous with work. Its distinctive sound effects, its GIF-enabling functions and its various icons are part and parcel of the experience of sitting at a desk and getting stuff done.
For Alex Engelberg, a computer engineer and this year a Halloween hero, Slack is also a costume. Engelberg shared an uncanny version of the Slack interface as his Halloween look on Twitter, featuring a simple t-shirt colored in the diagonal check design of the Slack logo, with an instrumental accompaniment to make the sounds of the interface.
It’s a personification of the Slack user experience. It’s the computer come to life. Those who prefer not to take their work home with them might relate, and get quite scared. As some of Engelberg’s commenters noted, the costume is “haunting,” “actually amazing” and “strangely entertaining.”
And as Slack itself commended Engelberg in response to his post, “You win.” Because who needs overdone, normal scary Halloween looks when the tools of fear (and costume puns) are all around us already?
