Vimeo Founder Zach Klein Announces DIY, A Project Showcasing App For Kids

Zach Davis Apr 26, 2012 Tweet

Earlier today, Vimeo co-founder Zach Klein announced his latest project, DIY, a project showcasing mobile app for kids and parents.  Essentially, the app is a venue to help children document and receive feedback from loved ones for the creative and imaginative objects and projects they create.  Upon building a birdhouse out of the leftover cardboard boxes, kids can upload their creation to the DIY dashboard and parents can reward these projects with stickers and encouraging comments.

“Adults are driven by a variety of motivations – careers and influence – but distilled it’s just acceptance that we all seek. Kids’ needs reflect this. They instinctively create – isn’t that wild! – and they just want you to hang their work on the fridge and tell them ‘good job’ and they’re charged to do it again.  Now the web is becoming a part of their life at home and school – and there’s a new opportunity to connect you to their creations and cheer them on,” says Klein.

Aside from being the original UX/UI for Vimeo, Klein was responsible for the product design at Connected Ventures, the group behind College Humor, and the CPO (Chief Product Officer) at Boxee.  Knowing that he could go in any direction, Klein saw building a company for kids to be the most appealing:

“Education is malaised.  We want to bounce our ideas off of a fresh generation.  Plus, I admire some traits that come more easily to kids than adults. They’re not as easily crippled by criticism. They’re instinctively scientists and explorers. They’re quick to build using anything at their disposal. They transform their amazement of the world into games. They’re often drawn to learning that’s indistinguishable from play (think about bug collecting!). And, most important, they embrace technology effortlessly.”

Download the free DIY app for iOS here.