Many times, DIY provides a better outcome that no one else can match.1 There are many reasons why. First, you don’t have to depend on someone else’s expertise. Starting from scratch can be daunting but there’s nothing like having a vision and creating the outcomes. Second, you work with your own timelines. No one is rushing you into decisions. If you need a little time to make sure the means to the outcome are sufficient then you can stop and think about it. Last, but not least, there is nothing like seeing your finished product. Nothing matches that. Nothing.
DIY is not new. In fact, many people do some backyard “tinkering”. What’s new is the amount of new technology that gives us even more options for creating. http://www.howtogeek.com, http://makezine.com, http://www.instructables.com are just a few sites that provide instructions and guidance for creating with technology.
The most common and accessible technologies that most of us share are smart phones and affordable digital cameras. They provide us with countless digital photos that, more often than not, just sit on our computers or the smart card. So what do we do with them? How do we make these great photos memorable? These are questions that we ask at Kinzin. That’s why we make tools to allow anyone to easily make books, trading cards, greeting cards, etc. We are the DIY of photo creations. And believe me, all the Kinzin mothers are thankful that we take the time to give them a photo gift instead of a hard drive.
1 If you’re not convinced and want to read more then check out this research by the Social Issues Research Centre. http://www.sirc.org/publik/tea_and_diy_why.html
