Maker

Ready, Set, Make!

Twenty-five teams, 1 box of parts, 4 hours, winner takes all — welcome to the 2008 XD Design Build Prize. By Gever Tulley

Sometimes you come across an object, device, or tool so compelling that you make up excuses to use it. This is how I feel about the Arduino, an open source, low-cost, easy-to-use electronics prototyping system designed to be used by people of all skill levels, from rank beginner to high wizard (see MAKE, Volume 07, page 52, “Arduino Fever”).

That’s why I hosted a contest at an internal Technology Summit held biennially by Adobe Systems, where I work as a senior computer scientist, in San Jose, Calif. The goal of the event was to put designers and developers on equally unfamiliar ground, while at the same time providing a problem to solve that would require the best from both mindsets. The loftier goal was to help them learn to appreciate each other, but we weren’t holding our

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breath on that one. Robyn Orr and Julie Spiegler, frequent collaborators on my hairbrained schemes, agreed to help me make it happen.

Knowing that developers are less comfortable with a subjective measurement of success, we crafted a goal that could be empirically determined: “Create an object that will keep a judge engaged for the longest amount of time,” with engagement* defined as “from the time the judge opens the box containing your object, to when they close the box.”

In order to keep the judges from self-consciously

Working for Adobe Systems (creator of the Engagement Platform), I was reminded that for this project we used the definition of engage, “to occupy the attention or efforts of a person,” not “to attract or please.”

Photography by Bob Murata