Cool site and congrats to this team! Love the idea and the execution.
Jewelbots – A Friendship Bracelet You Can Code
51–60 of 173 posts
Re: Jewelbots – A Friendship Bracelet You Can Code
#52Anyone who is active in the NYC JS scene knows Sara Chipps, the CEO of Jewelbots. She has given a couple talks about what it takes to run a hardware startup, and has been a wonderful member of the community. I only wish her and co. the best of success with everything they have put together, the new version looks great!
Sara Chipps (Jewelbots) | Navigating the Hardware World with Software Experience
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HKzQ00MZMs (Jun 2016)
Re: Jewelbots – A Friendship Bracelet You Can Code
#53I want to be cynical because I hate the idea that a gadget has to have "jewel" in the name and be a fancy "friendship bracelet" to appeal to girls. But it's a neat little trinket that somebody worked hard on, and if it really was a young woman who designed it to enjoy with their friends, I can't really hold that against them. I don't think scaring away guys from it by saying it's "for girls" is doing them any favors…
I actually like the idea that the gadget is positioned for "women in tech" without being about "women in tech". Last thing we need is another one of those panels, in lieu of what the individuals actually built or did.
Re: Jewelbots – A Friendship Bracelet You Can Code
#54The idea by itself is pretty great, however I think the site could do better at conveying what a Jewelbot can do. Apparently it has lights and vibration and it can communicate wirelessly- what else? Would it be possible to use it as a smart token / have it interact with other gadgets? Also, would you consider designing a version with a little embedded LCD screen to go with the programmable LEDs?
Re: Jewelbots – A Friendship Bracelet You Can Code
#55I want to be cynical because I hate the idea that a gadget has to have "jewel" in the name and be a fancy "friendship bracelet" to appeal to girls. But it's a neat little trinket that somebody worked hard on, and if it really was a young woman who designed it to enjoy with their friends, I can't really hold that against them. I don't think scaring away guys from it by saying it's "for girls" is doing them any favors…
I hear you. If you think of it as a way to appeal to feminine girls instead of all girls, it makes more sense. I know gender neutral coding toys already exist, but I think there's room (and a place) for super feminine ones too!
Whenever I have to buy a kid a present, I try to aim for the fun yet educational toys, regardless of which gender its marketed to, but not everyone does that.
I know people who will buy a random pink toy from the girls' toy aisle if they need a present for a girl, regardless what it is. Its pink, so it must be appropriate for a girl. The present giver feels like they did their job.
I think the mere existence of feminine coding toys will increase the chances of girls ending up with any sort of coding toy, which is the goal, right?
Re: Jewelbots – A Friendship Bracelet You Can Code
#56I was able to get in on the kickstarter and while I'm far from the target market I've found this a lot fun to play with. It's like an arduino with decent bluetooth and a tiny form factor.
I know some people on the team, they're great. But I also have a long history of working with microcontrollers in a semi educational setting (http://nodebots.io) and these are by far the least frustrating way to use wireless anything I've come across.
Re: Jewelbots – A Friendship Bracelet You Can Code
#57I want to be cynical because I hate the idea that a gadget has to have "jewel" in the name and be a fancy "friendship bracelet" to appeal to girls. But it's a neat little trinket that somebody worked hard on, and if it really was a young woman who designed it to enjoy with their friends, I can't really hold that against them. I don't think scaring away guys from it by saying it's "for girls" is doing them any favors…
Hi! We talked to over 200 girls when making this product, rest assured that every design decision was made with their feedback in mind. Boys also love playing with Jewelbots, but there are already a lot of coding toys aimed at boys!!! Our market primarily identifies as female, but we'll broaden down the road.
I think this is where we disagree a little. I don't think most coding toys actually are mostly aimed at boys. How would that even work? Do they require a Y chromosome to operate or something? They're just marketed to boys (and parents of boys), and parents and children alike buy in. The toy market today is highly segregated in marketing to boys vs girls, and toys that were not specifically "gendered" in the past are in the "Boys" section today (or sometimes vice versa).
For example, I know that when I was a kid I hated that any trip to McD's included me awkwardly going up to the front counter to exchange for the "boy" toys because I thought windup toys were more fun than dolls or pink bracelets or whatever. My favorite toys were things like beyblades, zoids, k'nex you know, things that I could build with and would move.
I was never not a girl for finding toys marketed to boys as more fun. I just knew that the toys that were in the "boys" section were more stimulating to me (and my sister felt the same too). I was lucky enough to have parents who didn't care, but some do and it just creates a cycle where girls say they prefer things that are targeted to girls (as opposed to the large number of toys that are only marketed to boys), and market researchers see that success and double-down, just making more stereotypically "girly" toys that sell to that defined market segment instead of making more gender-neutral toys with more inclusive ads (because they're afraid that advertising to girls will scare off boys).
So that's my concern here. I'm glad that girls and boys alike love jewelbots already, but do fear that explicitly saying that they are "for girls" will implicitly give credence to the idea that other toys are "for boys". As engineers we should not promote the idea that science toys without sparkles or pink on them are for boys, it should just be for kids. It limits the range of creative exploration available to girls who are trying to learn both science, and who they are and what conforming to social pressure allows if you tell them that they need to like girl oriented toys b/c everything else is for boys.
Re: Jewelbots – A Friendship Bracelet You Can Code
#58I want to be cynical because I hate the idea that a gadget has to have "jewel" in the name and be a fancy "friendship bracelet" to appeal to girls. But it's a neat little trinket that somebody worked hard on, and if it really was a young woman who designed it to enjoy with their friends, I can't really hold that against them. I don't think scaring away guys from it by saying it's "for girls" is doing them any favors…
Hi! We talked to over 200 girls when making this product, rest assured that every design decision was made with their feedback in mind. Boys also love playing with Jewelbots, but there are already a lot of coding toys aimed at boys!!! Our market primarily identifies as female, but we'll broaden down the road.
Care to expand on which toys are made with only boys in mind?
Re: Jewelbots – A Friendship Bracelet You Can Code
#59Well, I thought this would be the perfect Christmas gift for my 10 year old daughter, but $99 is just too much (at least for my budget). This does seem to be a great idea. Maybe they'll come out with a cheaper version at some point.
Re: Jewelbots – A Friendship Bracelet You Can Code
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
What they will do is make the nearly inevitable drama of teen girl lives more expensive as the devices are discarded as rapidly as BFFs and boyfriends. The drama in a young teen's life seems to know no limits. It's all very important to them, at least for the moment. As a parent, you're sort of obligated to take it Very Seriously. These are just one more thing to be taken Very Seriously. I do find it amusing that mar…
Hi! I hope we don't get discarded! We're a new product, so we don't yet have too much data about retention. We do know that 44% of our users code their Jewelbots using C++, many as first time coders! We also are about to ship our 10,000th unit. That makes over 4,000 new coders in the world (many younger than 10 years old)!
Maybe a fallback, not that you need one yet, when/if discarding is an issue, make a ring that has less functionality but isn't as obtrusive. The cool kids keep their Jewelbots in their bag but a ring lets them know of some activity.