Makexchange
Maker Faire Bay Area 2017
The Makexchange Portable Electronics Invention Lab. Advanced usability design meets the Maker Movement. Our lab introduces absolute beginners to the world of programming machines in a fun painless way.
We invented a Programmable Paper Airplane Launcher with it!
What Will You Invent? Come make see our lab and launch some paper airplanes too!
What inspired you to make this project?:
I originally set out to create a vanilla arduino kit and market it with my brand. I had hired two video production interns to help make high quality instructional videos for our site. Since they would be filming these arduino projects, I told them they needed to become familiar with the technology and gave them each a used arduino kit I'd been working with.
When they opened the boxes up, a look of pure terror flashed on their faces. None of them had a technical background. Something clicked in my head! Quickly, I grabbed the nearest whiteboard and marker. "Quick, tell me the feelings that you are having when you look at these boxes and their contents!", I asked them. Words like Intimidated, scared, frightened, confused, and others were expressed.
I immediately recognized an opportunity. These guys were having a visceral negative psychological response, but what was the stimulus? I realized if I could identify the specific elements of the standard bread-and-butter arduino kit that were triggers for these emotions and neutralize them, I'd have something no one else has in the market. So I got to work.
Through countless iterations and observations of newbies working with the technology, I came up with this design. It's truly unique and I hope it helps bring down the barriers for those less technically savvy and open to them a new world of possibilities.