Request for startup: a generative drawing app for kids

Prompt: “cute anthropomorphic paintbrushes” in Midjourney

Do you remember the drawing app Kid Pix? Created by Craig Hickman, it was first released in 1989—designed for kids, built for Apple computers. If you grew up playing Oregon Trail, there’s a good chance Kid Pix rode shotgun. As someone who spent the 1990s in elementary school, Kid Pix was a big deal for me. I credit the program with awakening me to how fun it could be to get creative with computers—an interest that became my career.

Here in 2022, two things occupy the majority of my waking hours: being a mom to my two young kids and talking with founders working on the future of creativity. As I toggle back and forth between the two contexts, ideas from one will lodge in my brain like stowaways and pop out at unexpected moments.

So with tools for imagination and generative AI in general on my mind lately, I’ve been thinking about what Kid Pix might look like if reinvented in 2022 with generative models at the core. In “Toward Tools for Imagination,” I bookmarked this idea in a bulleted list of generative applications I’d be excited to see—“Kid Pix 2022 reinvented with wacky brushes that pick up digital paint / patterns designed by generative models.” Since the idea has stuck with me, I wanted to take some time to expand on it.

First, some useful links:

Next: the dream here, in my mind, is not a literal translation of Kid Pix to the modern day. The dream is creative software designed in the same playful, respectful spirit as Kid Pix, incorporating both generative AI and ubiquitous touchscreens into its palette of affordances and constraints. As someone who’s downloaded many an ad-filled coloring app for my kids on the household iPad mini, I feel sure there’s an opportunity to do better.

Hickman’s reminiscences about the creation of Kid Pix hold plenty of food for thought:

  • On kids as inspiration: “One day in 1988 while I was using MacPaint, the wonderful paint program that came with the Macintosh, my 3-year-old son Ben asked to try using the program. I was surprised at how quickly he got the knack of using the mouse and how easily he was able to select tools. The problem was that he didn't have total control of the mouse and would occasionally (like every five minutes or so) pull down a menu and bring up a dialog box that he couldn't dismiss without being able to read. Everything was fine as long as I was in the room, but if I stepped out for a few minutes I would come back and find Ben kicking on the floor in frustration. This was not what I had in mind for his introduction to the computer.”

  • On co-creating with kids: “As I added new features to Kid Pix, I would try them out on Ben. Anything he had trouble with would be changed. The customer was always right. One day I took a number of computers to Ben's pre-school and tried it out on the children there, most of whom had not used computers before. Within ten minutes of having the children use the program I had accumulated a long list of small user interface changes for the program.”

  • Fifteen guiding principles for the creation of Kid Pix: They’re all worth a read, but my favorites are “1. (The Prime Directive) The program should be extremely easy to use. No manual should be needed and program features should "explain themselves" through use. All tasks should be able to be performed in the simplest, most straightforward way. The program should go out of its way to meet the user,” “3. The program should, in some way, expand the concept of what computer paint programs are, as well as what mark making can be,” “9. Children love stickers and rubber stamps. The program should allow for some pre-made iconic art,” “11. When Ben built something out of blocks, he enjoyed knocking his structure down almost as much as he did building it. Getting rid of the picture should be fun. Hence the exploding firecracker eraser,” and “15. While on the surface the program should seem to be for children, open minded adults should get a kick out of using it too.”

  • On total authorship in the early days: “Since I was going to give the program away I decided I could design it exactly the way I wanted.”

When I picture Kid Pix 2022, I imagine an app with the following qualities:

  • Built for kids, with kids, for fun: A great application here will start in the spirit of play, possibly as a gift to a beloved young child in the creators’ lives. It will follow the spirit of Kid Pix guiding principle #2: “…every opportunity should be taken to make the program surprising and satisfying to use. No opportunity should be missed. The process of making a picture should be as important as the picture produced.”

  • Touchscreen-first: iPads, old smartphones, and other touchscreen devices are the de facto kid-friendly personal computers of 2022—a great application here will embrace that.

  • Generative, with guardrails: There’s something clarifying about baking generativity into an app built for kids: it really doesn’t need to be an “everything machine”—it can start (and potentially stay) “strictly a toy,” with lots of arbitrary constraints designed to keep things safe and fun. As an example from the original prompt, “wacky brushes that pick up digital paint / patterns designed by generative models” seem promising to me because generative models are great at creating infinite wackiness.

  • Joyfully chaotic: Some of Craig Hickman’s best insights were about celebrating kids’ love of destruction—“Getting rid of the picture should be fun. Hence the exploding firecracker eraser.” Kids are usually not precious about their creations; an app built with them in mind has a chance to invert preciousness and celebrate chaos, too.

I’ve already had a lot of fun being my kids’ personal DALL·E concierge, but I know so much more could be possible in a guided experience. If this is close to something you’re working on or thinking about, I’d love to hear from you! diana@matrixpartners.com

Diana Berlin