PitsBoard is not a finished product yet.
Right now, I’m working with functional prototypes while continuing to test and refine the hardware, software, interchangeable plate system, and interaction design in parallel.
The core ideas are beginning to take shape. The sensing system works, PC interactions are running, interchangeable plates can be used to create different physical layouts, and the on-screen Overlay connects those physical interactions back to the software.
But there is still a significant gap between a working prototype and a product that can be delivered reliably to many people.
Rather than trying to jump directly to a finished consumer product, I plan to start with a small number of PitsBoard Builder Kits.
Starting with a small group of Builders
The first version I want to put into other people’s hands is the PitsBoard Builder Kit.
The Builder Kit is not intended to be a completely fixed, finished product.
It is designed for makers, developers, designers, and others who want to experiment with PitsBoard themselves — printing their own plates and enclosures, modifying layouts, and creating interactions for their own workflows.
For the first stage, I want to keep the number of kits relatively small.
This is intentional.
Rather than shipping to a large number of people immediately, I want to stay close enough to the first Builders that we can communicate easily and learn from how PitsBoard is actually used.
What kinds of applications will people use it with?
What kinds of plates will they design?
Which parts of the setup are confusing?
Which interactions feel natural, and which ones do not?
There are many things that are difficult to discover when I am the only person using the system.
Sensor stability, plate replacement, the feel of pressing and touching the surface, the visibility of the Overlay, and the process of creating application-specific configurations all need to be tested outside of my own development environment.
At this stage, learning how people actually use PitsBoard is more important than increasing the number of units shipped.
Giving Builders room to modify the system
Alongside the Builder Kit hardware, I also want to prepare the tools and data needed to customize PitsBoard.
This includes things such as:
- design data for creating plates
- application-specific interaction profiles
- on-screen Overlay configurations
- firmware
- SDKs and development tools
These will be released progressively as development continues.
The goal is not simply to provide a collection of finished plates.
A Builder should be able to download an existing design, modify part of it, adapt it to another application, or create something completely new.
That freedom is an important part of the Builder Kit.
One of the things I am most interested in seeing is what happens when PitsBoard is used by people who do not share my assumptions about how it should work.
New applications, new plate designs, and completely different interaction ideas may emerge.
That is something I want the early stage of the project to make possible.
Refining the Builder Kit before crowdfunding
After a small number of Builder Kits have been used in real environments, the next step I am considering is crowdfunding.
The idea is not to take the current prototype and immediately reproduce it at a larger scale.
Instead, feedback from the early Builders will be used to turn the Builder Kit into something more stable, understandable, and practical for a wider group of people.
That means reviewing more than just the interaction concepts.
The hardware architecture.
The enclosure and plate designs.
The setup process.
Software usability.
Durability.
Manufacturing and shipping.
Things that are manageable when building a handful of prototypes become much more important when the same system needs to work reliably for many different people.
Crowdfunding would also be a useful way to understand how much interest there actually is in PitsBoard beyond the initial group of Builders.
So the current plan is to improve the system with a small group first, and only then make the Builder Kit available more broadly.
Toward a production version
Beyond the Builder Kit and crowdfunding stage, the goal is to eventually develop a production version of PitsBoard.
The Builder Kit assumes that users are willing to do some of the work themselves.
They may 3D print parts, experiment with different plates, adjust configurations, or explore the software in more depth.
A production version should move one step closer to being an everyday tool.
It should not require assembly.
Changing plates should be simple.
Getting started should not require significant technical knowledge.
The hardware should be durable enough for regular use.
And the software and hardware should feel like one coherent system from the moment it is set up.
There is an important difference between the freedom to build that I want from the Builder Kit and the ability to simply use it that a production product needs.
The challenge will be to make PitsBoard simpler without removing the openness and flexibility that make the Builder Kit interesting.
Exactly how the production version will be released is not something I want to define yet.
There is still too much to learn from the Builder phase first.
The roadmap for now
At the moment, the development path looks roughly like this:
Prototype
Continue refining the current hardware, interaction system, and software.
Early Builder Kit
Put a small number of kits into the hands of Builders I can communicate with directly, and collect real-world feedback and use cases.
Builder Kit Crowdfunding
Use that feedback to improve the system and make the Builder Kit available to a wider group of people.
Production Version
Use what we learn from the Builder Kit to work toward a version that is easier to set up, easier to use, and suitable as an everyday input device.
This roadmap may change as development progresses.
PitsBoard is still a small project, and I do not think it makes sense to define a rigid multi-year product roadmap at this stage.
I would rather build each step, put it in front of real people, learn from what happens, and decide what the next step should be based on that.
First, I want more people to actually touch it
Right now, I do not think the most important thing for PitsBoard is to keep adding more features.
The next important step is getting what already exists into the hands of people other than myself.
How does it feel when someone else uses it?
What do they try to do with it?
What feels confusing?
What uses do they discover that I never considered?
Those answers will tell me much more about what PitsBoard should become.
So the immediate goal is simple:
Start with a small number of Builder Kits.
Learn from them.
Improve the system.
Then move toward crowdfunding and, eventually, a production version.
For now, I’m focused on making that first step work well.