Feminine gamification viewpoint: crafts like
As you know from Wednesday’s blog post earlier this week I attended Re:work: the future of education and one of the companies products really fascinated me namely Technology will save us. Not only did they have the coolest kits to create gadgets such as your own game console, speakers, electronic dough, plant watering devices, etc. but what they found from their buyer’s analysis that the majority of buyers were girls. Nearly 60% of their kits went to girls and although that wasn’t the original objective, it was a fabulous side effect. Bethany Koby the founder and CEO of the company felt that it was probably to do with the fact that the kit encourage craft like activities.
Have a look at their promotion video to get an idea of what they are talking about:
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Although I was never excellent at crafts in school (mainly because I felt there was no purpose to them), I did get excited by the kits from Technology will save us. From a company perspective they feel they clearly are in the learning industry and encouraging learning by doing. Think of practical missions and explorative creativity as options. The products come well presented in fun coloured boxes and in the first instance she got the idea because her son was so attracted to the iPad and she felt she wanted to expand his idea of technology to much wider options. Under this theme I like to showcase some great female role models and I think here we have another lady who basically identified a need from a very practical perspective.
In terms of gamification this is a behaviour changing product, whether you class it as a toy, a craft or a learning tool, it is too much fun and too attractive not to get engaged and play with it. Again creativity is encouraged an some every day products are used to help create the very essentials to make it all work. Imagine the sense of achievement by designing something from 0 and then potentially being the first to make something new with it.
My favourite wish list kit is the plant watering kit and the games console kit comes a close second, what is your favourite?
