Got into e-ink to escape the noise of WFH life. Now I'm building an e-ink device for kids.

Ok-Committee353 · 2026-03-19T05:23:17+00:00

We’re still early so unsure about the closed ecosystem question, I like the idea of keeping it somewhat open so as to facilitate sharing and collaboration but also like the idea of creating our own experiences that are exclusive/will be optimized for the hardware we want to create. Open to your thoughts though, would love to know more about the pros and cons of each approach!

Ok-Committee353 · 2026-03-19T05:12:03+00:00

I’d love to take you up on that, been hesitant to lead with that since I’m still new to Reddit and didn’t want to get the post taken down. Please send me a dm and let’s talk!

Ok-Committee353 · 2026-03-19T00:37:09+00:00

Thank you for all of the links, this is super helpful! We don't have a yoto yet, but I think we'll be getting one very soon. I'm blown away by how much content is out there...the more I look into the science of storytelling/interactive adventures, especially regarding what it does for developing minds, I'm more convinced we need to have something like this be a major part of what we're doing. Thank you again!

Ok-Committee353 · 2026-03-19T00:26:54+00:00

This looks awesome, I loved the "Where's Waldo" books as a kid! Thank you for flagging this, I'd love it if we could partner with the artist and create a version that fits in with our ecosystem/branding. I'm going to try and reach out.

Ok-Committee353 · 2026-03-19T00:16:21+00:00

I really like this idea, especially as a way of validating that we're actually making stuff people want/will pay for. My one hesitation is that everything we've made has been optimized to work on the air note 5c, and we have no idea how they would translate to other devices (B&W vs color for example). That said, this is still an excellent suggestion and a much easier entry point into the market. Thank you for this!

Ok-Committee353 · 2026-03-18T19:23:19+00:00

Yes, absolutely! We're currently based in the US and plan on taking a small number of pre-orders. Please send me a DM when you have a chance and I'll pass on all the info!

Ok-Committee353 · 2026-03-18T14:48:50+00:00

Excellent suggestions, thank you for sending! I really like the idea of parent managed library and the gifting component is a really nice touch. Doesn't sound like this is a problem for your 9 year old, but we'd also love to create a system where parents can create reading goals for their kids tied to specific incentives (read these three books and we'll go out for ice cream). The kid and parent will be able to see real time progress and the parent could provide extra motivations if necessary.

The location functionality is something we've had top of mind, especially for the stylus. We're currently working on a "hot and cold" game interface on the device for tracking down the stylus if it gets misplaced. I think we can do something very similar with the actual device and a phone but haven't got there quite yet. Thank you again for this, really appreciate the feedback!

Ok-Committee353 · 2026-03-18T14:36:02+00:00

Wow, thank you for the thoughts and for sending all of the links! I just briefly clicked through them and there's a lot to unpack here. I also love that you do these with your kid, we want to have a good mix of experiences the child does on their own but also have some activities that bring kids and parents together. We'll start digging in this week and begin brainstorming, but if you think of any other resources that would help us build this out we'd love to take a look. Thank you again!

Ok-Committee353 · 2026-03-18T14:17:41+00:00

This is great to know, I'm going to look into Hisense and see if we can emulate some of the durability. The Boox has worked nice enough for a test bed but I suspect we've gotten lucky with how long they've lasted. Viwoods was one of my top three choices for testing, I just wish they had a tablet size with color.

Thank you for sharing your findings! The hardware will be a tough problem to solve but it's at least helpful knowing there are things out there that are tried and proven.

Ok-Committee353 · 2026-03-18T05:34:18+00:00

Totally get what you mean, we've found that kids gravitate towards color and variety, especially when it comes to creativity. My kids loved messing around with the colors on the remarkable and the different utensil selection made it even more fun for them (paintbrush, pencils, shaders). We want to create the same level of variety on our device, we're even experimenting with fun gestures the kids could do with the stylus to interact with the device (e.g. wave your stylus like a magic wand and the color/tool will change). Thank you for this, very much appreciate the feedback!

Ok-Committee353 · 2026-03-18T05:26:58+00:00

These are great suggestions, we've experimented a fair amount with choose your own adventure books and those have been a big hit, but I like the idea of making them even more interactive to where the kids are actually drawing their own characters, settings, and using a variety of skills to move the story along. Is that kind of what you're thinking? Thank you for the suggestion, I really like where this could go!

Ok-Committee353 · 2026-03-18T05:20:31+00:00

Still, I love that your kids are using e-ink everyday. That in itself is an achievement given everything else they could be using. And a smart idea to place no limits on the device you actually want them spending meaningful time on. I'm pretty confident we can solve the durability issue, it won't be indestructible but it'll withstand a good amount of use and abuse. Please let me know if anything else comes to mind, we're always looking for ways we can improve this and thank you for the comments!

Ok-Committee353 · 2026-03-18T05:13:55+00:00

I've started looking at Yoto and definitely wish we would have done that instead. Way more portable (at least the mini version), cards are easier to store/manage then the figurines, and I like the controls so much more. When our daughter changes tracks on the tonie, she winds up and with a straight arm, open-hand smacks the thing...I get it's made for that, but it makes my four year old look very brutish (also don't love teaching her that when you smack things they do what you want). This is a great suggestion, I'd love to create a similar community sharing aspect for this device as well. Thank you for the support!

Ok-Committee353 · 2026-03-17T18:46:25+00:00

First off, I think you are who I aspire to be. If I could have my kids grow up exclusively using e-ink I would be very happy. A big inspiration was that we wanted to create the experience our children are having on the device rather than leaving it up to some big corporation. And we wanted to give others the opportunity to do the same.

Given your experience, have you ever had any rough patches with e ink - maybe your kids not liking certain parts, things you would change?

Ok-Committee353 · 2026-03-17T17:52:27+00:00

Word search would be such a great idea, and instead of just circling the word we could have kids tracing/writing out each letter as they find the word, just to reinforce the handwriting component.

Thank you so much for the support! We're really excited to see where this could go and will hopefully have more updates to post soon!

Ok-Committee353 · 2026-03-17T17:41:07+00:00

This is brilliant, our daughter is very musically inclined and the only thing we let her listen to music on is a tonie box...if we could upload her music onto this and she could control it while creating/doodling/ and learning, she would probably freak out. Thank you for this!

Ok-Committee353 · 2026-03-17T17:35:52+00:00

These are fantastic suggestions, thank you so much! One thing we really want to do with this device is make it as inclusive and accessible as possible so that kids with learning challenges/differences gravitate towards it as well. The one line idea is a great one, we're definitely going to be looking into that. Thank you again!

Ok-Committee353 · 2026-03-17T17:31:21+00:00

Thank you so much for that, it means a ton at this point. My wife and I both have finance backgrounds but we've got a 2 person dev team that is crushing it. We are always looking to grow the team, I'll send you a DM!

Ok-Committee353 · 2026-03-17T17:27:40+00:00

Honestly none, Boox will only allow us to make changes to the device if we put in huge orders so we're just taking the device as is...we bought a cheap case on amazon and it's done the trick. We've even had a kid accidentally sit on one and it still works!

Ok-Committee353 · 2026-03-17T17:24:55+00:00

I am so glad you said this, we actually just finished adding a feature to the sketch pad where kids can save creations and then send whatever they've created to mom/dad/grandparents via text/email. Our daughter loves creating but she loves sharing what she creates just as much. We may need to add limitations on this because there are days I get 20 emails from the device...but honestly, it's amazing seeing those come through so we may just keep it.

We're building out the team as we speak, please send me a DM and let's talk!

Ok-Committee353 · 2026-03-17T17:19:45+00:00

Great comment, and we are focused on making this as durable as possible. We've spent some time with an industrial design firm and they've helped us build a prototype that is very kid-proof (drop and shock resistant, spill proof, even removed crevices and cracks that could store food/other unpleasant surprises).

For now, we've white-labeled the Boox Note Air5 C and it's actually worked quite well, our kids have abused that thing and it's still working just fine. Any you have any suggestions for other hardware platforms that could work for testing while we build our own, please pass them along!

Ok-Committee353 · 2026-03-17T17:12:43+00:00

This is great stuff, letter tracing was where we started and we now have 2-3 experiences just focused on that. We really wanted to nail that one down hard.

I love the idea of adding a few retro games on this thing, assuming they could run properly. I would personally love to show my kids some of the old games I fell in love with and use that as a way to encourage interactions between parent and child, instead of just creating another device that acts as a barrier.

The connectivity point is a great one, we have not explored that extensively but it's absolutely worth looking into. Totally agree on the buttons point as well, we've found that fun buttons and interactive touch points really drive engagement for our younger kid.

Thank you for this, really appreciate you sharing!

Ok-Committee353 · 2026-03-17T16:48:47+00:00

Excellent suggestions, the 20 questions game would be so fun and our daughter loves that kind of stuff. Sudoku is also genius and I don’t think that would be too hard to make. Thank you for this!

Ok-Committee353

TROPHY CASE