Piper Computer Kit

Challenge & Background

"I feel like I can get electric shocks. Dangerous looking. I don't want to touch it." That was the honest reaction to a box of bare circuit boards. A year later, kids were asking if they could assemble it themselves.

Piper's CEO, Mark Pavlyukovskyy, approached me with a vision: a computer kit that would build children's interest in computer science and mechanical engineering. I took a raw box of Raspberry Pi components and turned it into a user-friendly, visually appealing product.

Early testers called the raw kit "so ugly" and "intimidating", and that they'd worry about electric shocks just by looking at it.
Parts were unorganized and easy to lose, with no clear starting point for a first-time user.

The original raw batch of Piper prototypes, wired and unfinished

The original kit: raw components, exposed wires, no enclosure in sight.

Users

First-Time Builder

A kid who wants to build something real with their own hands, not just play with a finished product.

Two kids intently testing their assembled Piper Computer Kit

STEM-Focused Classroom

A school looking to bring hands-on circuits and code into the classroom, not just a kid at home. We were pushing for school collaborations.

Kids in glasses testing a wired Piper prototype in a STEM classroom

Product Team & My Role

Chief Designer: turned a black box of raw components into a shipped product enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of kids.

The Piper founding team holding an early wooden prototype of the Computer Kit

From left to right: Jeremy (Copy Editor), me (Chief Designer), Alex (CTO), Mark (CEO), and Cameron (SDE).

Product Goals

Kid-Safe Product

Eye-Catching, Unique Design

Hands-On Building Experience

Fast, Low-Cost Manufacturing for 2015 Holidays

Early Concepts

Early hand-drawn sketches exploring hinge and enclosure concepts

Early sketches, working through hinge mechanisms and folding angles.

Cutting a cardboard V1 prototype to test proportions

A cardboard V1, cut fast and cheap to test proportions before committing to wood.

CAD Design Exploration

The first round of CAD concepts explored a plastic laptop form factor, iterating mostly on color and material before the design pivoted away from plastic entirely.

Physical Prototype V1

The Concept 2 CAD model, brought to life as a real wood prototype and tested with kids in a workshop setting.

Concept 2 CAD model of the wooden box enclosure

CAD Prototype

Kids testing the physical wood prototype matching the Concept 2 CAD model

The matching physical prototype, in the hands of real kids.

User Testing

We visited schools to put the kit in front of real kids. Seeing them so focused and happy, peppering us with questions, was pure joy.

Kids testing a wood prototype of the Piper Computer Kit

"I don't like the strings, they make the computer kit look cheap."
"When I tried to close the kit, the strings and the flaps are in the way."
"How can I lock it so it doesn't open and spill everything when I carry it around?"
"The box is so small. I end up having to take the gadgets out of the box so I can play with them."
"The wood box is really cool; I wish I could put it together myself."

Finalized Design

Mary assembling a Piper prototype at her desk, color concept renderings pinned behind her

Replaced fragile strings with sturdy wood joints

Added a front lock, so nothing spills when carried

Added a slide-open front panel and more compartments

Included a printed blueprint so kids could assemble the kit themselves

Concept 3 CAD model of the refined wooden box enclosure

Kids testing multiple V2 wood prototypes

Kickstarter

The single most valuable comment came from a kid, not a stakeholder: "The wood box is really cool; I wish I could put it together myself." That sentence reframed the enclosure from packaging into the first lesson, and the self-assembly blueprint we built around it is the decision I'd point to for why the campaign hit five times its goal.

Finished Piper Computer Kits boxed and ready for shipping

Finished kits, boxed and ready to ship to backers.

Hands-on, building one of the earliest working prototypes.

Piper Computer Kit being demoed at a press event

Demoing the finished kit to press after launch.

A full assembly line of Piper Computer Kits being wired and built

Assembly in progress, every kit wired and tested by hand.

Final Design

The final Piper Computer Kit, open with screen and breadboard visible

Every part of the final Piper Computer Kit, exploded view

Results

A family building a Piper Computer Kit together on their living room floor

These reviews are from 2017, a couple years after launch. One of them, from The River and Wilder Show, has reached 1.7M views on its own. Piper still sells the kit today as the "Computer Kit V4B," and it's the same wooden hinged box with a breadboard and LCD screen I designed back in 2015.

Over a decade later, the design hasn't changed, and the awards haven't stopped.

These accolades span 2017 through 2025, long after I left the company, a sign the design itself is what's still winning.