EVERYDAY OBJECTS

Wood and electronics kit that teach young learners how to bring IOT devices to LIFE through building & coding.

01 ► refresh your "senses"

At the time of development, the educational electronics kit market was saturated with only one build, robotic kits that fail if priced above $150.

I saw an opportunity to carve out a space for Piper to lead the market, appealing to both parents and young learners with smart coding kits that provide endless hours of prototyping.

Young prototypers begin by building an everyday object and coding its IOT components. With a foundational understanding of how the mechanical, electrical, and software elements work, they then remix the build into another object, invent new devices, or connect a smart room. There are exponential possibilities to invent — it just requires a little imagination.

smart object — smart room

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Kids go under the hood of smart objects to learn that the magic lies in how you build and code it — eventually challenging themselves to automate their rooms with a suit of smart devices.

remixable mechanics

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Primitive forms make complex or “transformer-esque” creations with puzzle-like connections, no tolerance dependent fits, & 360 xyz axis building planes.

seamless interactions

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As prototypers advance in Piperlab, a seamless feedback loop contextualizes “cause and effect” when they use their IRL components to activate change in the game AND the real world.

With the endless coding challenges available in Piperlab — young learners needed a building piece library and electronic IOT components to match.

I lead a R&D team of hardware integration specialists and software engineers in developing a comprehensive ecosystem with a modular grid and 1 to 1 wire connections.

Through development, I led the designing of the “ABCs” of building — as users flow back and forth between building in IRL & coding in digital, the everyday objects come “alive.” To keep the team aligned on the vision, I motivated with the design principles of ELECTRICAL MUST — EVERYDAY UTILIZATION — HOME USE — FOR EVERYONE — FUN STAMP.

assemble puck

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To start off the seamless hybrid learning loop right, I envisioned the housing of the sensors and actuators to be easily codeable and assemblable pucks with intuitive panel attachments.

build object

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To provide motivation for continuous invention, we designed building panels, brackets, and metal hardware that can be digitally remixed to help build confidence with more timid physical prototypers.

customize object

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With primitive forms, young learners have the confidence to rearrange the customizable pieces, universal puck placement, a simplified cable network and digital code experimentation — and have less anxiety and more fun with discovering the final result.

design room

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To motivate ongoing learning, I experimented with different problem solving boosts to create the most supportive ecosystem for advanced users to continue inventing new devices for their real, IOT Smart rooms — the secret ingredient is mixing game play with creative expression.

pickup playbook

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With a leadership change came an unfortunate pause to the line; so I quickly developed a playbook to encapsulate the R&D, how and what users want to build, aesthetic fidelity guard rails and power of a connected room transforming everyday objects into beloved trophies.