Gimkit: A live classroom quiz game made by high school students

Product Hunt

Congrats on the launch, @joshdotjs! How are you sourcing questions and content? P.S. the name and logo looks a bit too familiar to Gimlet Media.

Report

7yr ago

Josh Foster

Gimkit

Maker

@rrhoover Thank you so much, Ryan! So, as for sourcing questions and content, there are two ways. The first way is a teacher creates the Gimlet from scratch. He/she inputs all the questions/answers But, I think the second way is much more exciting. There is a site called Quizlet, which has 150 million flashcard sets. We have a tool called Fusion which can convert any of these 150 million sets into Gimlets with one click. And in response to your last point -- for sure you're right. I knew about Gimlet Media before, but through the design process, talking to teachers and students, I only a few that brought it up. I really like Gimlet Media and don't want to bring confusion away from their brand, so I'll start looking into a redesign (with a renaming being the last option).

Report

7yr ago

Matt Gardner

@rrhoover @joshdotjs A different logo would do wonders. I saw the preview and thought Gimlet media had launched a quiz game.

Report

7yr ago

Ryan Marr

@rrhoover @joshdotjs @thatmattgardner I would suggest changing the name, considering gimlet media I believe owns the trademark to the name. Why arouse confusion?

Report

7yr ago

Josh Foster

Gimkit

Maker

@rrhoover @thatmattgardner @ryanmarr Yep -- we're looking into new name/logo right now -- when we were receiving feedback, we were listening to teachers, not necessarily the target market for Gimlet Media. Obviously, the tech space knows who they are so we don't want to cause confusion there.

Report

7yr ago

Harold Cummington

@rrhoover @thatmattgardner @ryanmarr @joshdotjs Curious to know the thinking behind this naming… Since a gimlet is an alcoholic drink, seems like an odd name for an app for schoolchildren.

Report

7yr ago

Josh Foster

Gimkit

Maker

Hey everyone, it's Josh here, creator of Gimlet. Now I know this is usually the place where I describe the product myself, but I would rather just give some insight into the making of Gimlet. Gimlet starts back in February. I and a few other students come together to start a business. We eventually want to do something in the tech space, but don't have enough money to start. We made (another) social media company. Since it was basically just service work, we had very minimal expenses. We worked for multiple businesses across the US up until June, when we finally had enough money to build the tech product. We thought about something we really like from school. Kahoot. This was a classroom quiz game that was typically reserved for unit reviews. We went over all the things we didn't like about Kahoot as students and interviewed teachers to find out about what they didn't like about Kahoot. From this, we came up with the idea for Gimlet, which you can read about above 😊. I spent my summer working away trying to make Gimlet a reality. I wish I went outside more often, took some more breaks, spent some more time with friends. I became completely determined to complete Gimlet, for better or worse. We went into beta in September, gave access to some teachers and the results were honestly crazy. Some teachers were seeing an average test score increase of 14%. We knew going into this that our gameplay was going to help test scores, but we didn't think that it could be by this much. And now it's finally here. It's been a crazy journey, and I'm super nervous...but also very excited.

Report

7yr ago

Jeff Osborn

Thank you for making and sharing @joshdotjs! I love the ease and design. This is a great tool! I like that makers can use GIFs as covers on their Gimlets, but needs to be more flexible (i.g. the ability to search and add, or upload own images or GIFs). The random GIFs are not only weird but inappropriate in some cases (considering students will be using this). Looking forward to continuing to explore Gimlet. Keep up the good work! P.S. Have to second @rrhoover on the branding issue, just because it's such an important point. I have an extensive branding background and I'd recommend looking for a new name. If you decide to keep the name, you're on the right track in terms of re-working the logo & typeset.

Report

7yr ago

Josh Foster

Gimkit

Maker

@rrhoover @jeff_osborn Yes, it's on our Trello board for things to do -- we have a few school-safe default nature-inspired ones at the bottom, but we're working on what you mentioned. Thanks so much for your feedback!

Report

7yr ago

Gimkit

A live classroom quiz game made by high school students

Do you use Gimkit?

Review Gimkit?

Reviews of Gimkit