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Laura Holmes

Grasshopper — The coding app for beginners by Google

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Grasshopper is the coding app for beginners. With fun, quick lessons on your phone, the app teaches adult learners to write real JavaScript. It’s currently available for free on Android and iOS. Grasshopper is built by a team within Area 120, a workshop for experimental projects.

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Ben Tossell
Saw the article on TC: https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/1... and downloaded straight away! I look back to when I first tried to learn to code about 6 years ago and remember thinking I found it too hard or couldnt keep up with doing it. Now I think, why didn't I just do little bits where I could to keep learning?! I'd be able to actually build my ideas myself! So I've started using Grasshopper! :D lets see how it goes! I think my issue with learning to code is not know where or what to start with....I almost want something or someone to ask "This is the platform I'm looking to build, these are the features, what language and frameworks can I learn to do this?"
Abadesi
@bentossell Similar to you I always got stuck on completing courses, then someone advised me to build sth I need / want / can play with. Led to me finishing my first rails web app. So I'm passing the baton, keep playing with Grasshopper and start building sth you need 😄
Angie
Hi @fearofpoets, I followed a few lessons today and I like the way the app and the different topics are presented as a whole. I just started to learn Swift so a lot of topics like functions, variables and arrays look familiar and are easier to follow. I'm no so far in the app yet but will you also build lessons where basic apps are built for example? This part helps me during my Swift coding course. Congrats on the launch!
Laura Holmes
Maker
@angeliquesocial Building basic apps takes a fair amount of knowledge and complexity, and since we're starting folks from the very beginning, we haven't gotten to that level of depth yet... but we are working on gradually making our way there! Stay tuned as we continue to add more curriculum. :)
Angie
@fearofpoets thanks for your reply looking forward to what is next :)
Abadesi
Thanks for hunting @fearofpoets what were some of the hurdles you faced when trying to get this off the ground?
Laura Holmes
Maker
@abadesi Oh goodness, so many things :) We were testing for about 9 months tweaking to get stuff right. The custom code editor designed for beginners took a long time to get right, and we also had to tweak the curriculum a lot to optimize for students actually learning (e.g. we would introduce a new lesson, and then we'd get the stats back and realize that it was too confusing, so had to swap it out for something different). We also had to do a lot of iteration on our progress indicators (progress bars, points, and achievements). We still have a LOT more work to do to add more curriculum and keep motivating more people through to graduation, but we think it's a good start. :)
Jeremy Bauer
This is so fuuuuun. Serious kudos! Really well executed. I thought it was interesting that the get help links go to Discourse posts. Just curious, why use this method instead of a pop-up window or in-app kb? I’m not knocking either method, I’m just interested in learning the thoughts behind this Discourse method.
Angie

I completed three lessons today and I enjoy the learning proces. If you get stuck you can ask for help so someone from the Grasshopper team or community can help you get back on track. I think this is a very important aspect of learning how to code because many people quit because they get stuck at some point. At the beginning of the course you can set up a schedule fitting your personal situation. You can choose to take the lessons daily or every other day for example.

Pros:

Easy to understand the fundamentals. The lessons are presented in a cleary and organised.

Cons:

None yet

Del Williams
I downloaded this last night and played with it some. I like it. I use JavaScript quite a bit, so it was neat.
Laura Holmes
Maker
@delwilliams Awesome! Glad you're having a good time so far :)
Volodymyr Spodaryk

UPD: issue was quickly resolved: it was flag of Haiti not Russia (they look pretty similar on white background in small resolution).

Epic fail with Russian flag for Ukraine!

And looks like it is not just screenshot, it is in app too.

Image from newsletter from ProductHunt:

Topic on TechCrunch:

https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/1...

Pros:

Never used

Cons:

Really offensive promo for Ukrainians

David Bernegger
The blue-red represents the flag of Haiti. In the task you have to change the bottom color from yellow (ukraine) to red (haiti).
Heather Smith
Grasshopper Curriculum Manager here! David is right, the flag shown is the flag of Haiti (blue stripe, then red). However, it was brought to our attention just after we launched that this can easily be mistaken for Russian. We've since updated that puzzle, which you can see reflected in our app and on the homepage: https://grasshopper.codes/ . So thank you for flagging this, it allowed us to make the quick change.
Volodymyr Spodaryk
@heathermacsmith thank you for update. Didn't know how Haiti flag looks like :) On white background flag of Haiti look really similar to Russian. As there are ~200 countries in the world with own flag - there was really small chance to get such issue. But sometime shit happens, especially there where you don't expect them :) Thanks for quick feedback!
Ritwik Debnath
I've been using this for a couple months now and the bite sized lessons are really easy to digest and remember for someone getting started! Just another awesome Google product.
Laura Holmes
Maker
@ritwik1 Thanks for the review! :D
Saurabh Hooda
Tried the app on iOS. It's really solid stepping stone for the beginners. Kudos on a great launch too :) Feel free to submit it on Hackr.io's Intro to programming category: https://hackr.io/tutorials/learn.... We would love to feature it there!
Birgit Frenzel

makes fun:-)

Pros:

easy to use and understand

Cons:

do I really learn something?

Volodymyr Grinchenko

Guys, in a screenshot from Product Hunt email you have Ukraine under the Russian flag: https://imgur.com/km0ihcs That's super offensive. I mean come one, it's 2018, put some efforts into ensuring you won't offend countries you're using in your promo! The same goes for TC article: https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/1...

Pros:

Haven't tried it yet (and frankly, won't do it after this situation)

Cons:

Really offensive promo

Volodymyr Spodaryk
Agree, it is an epic fail with the photo! And looks like it is not just screenshot, it is in app too.
David Bernegger
The blue-red represents the flag of Haiti. In the task you have to change the bottom color from yellow (ukraine) to red (haiti).
Volodymyr Grinchenko
Please correct your offensive promo, you have Ukraine under Russian flag: https://imgur.com/km0ihcs and the same on TC https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/1...
Heather Smith
@volodymyr_grinchenko Grasshopper Curriculum Manager here — that's the Haitian flag: blue at the top, red at the bottom. It was brought to our attention just after we launched that this can easily be mistaken for Russian. We've since updated that puzzle, which you can see reflected in our app and on the homepage: https://grasshopper.codes/ . So thank you for flagging this, it allowed us to make the quick change.
Volodymyr Grinchenko
@heathermacsmith thanks for removing the possibly confusing element and thanks for your quickly reply!
Federico Gaglio

Just another great project from the Google team, and a really good one: the interest on programming is always something hard to tackle but this app made me (as a dev) want to review again JS.

Pros:

Great design, learning curve and experience.

Cons:

"Log in every day" style ruins the sense of achievement for anyone that has a busy day and can't log in.

Brian Wadley
The just-in-time onboarding features allows for a fast and welcoming start up as a new user! I love the pathway for viewing my progress and the gamification of the lessons. I think a few tweaks to the directions in some of the exercises might help. I notice that some of the exercises are learn by exploring and failing and that is good, but doesn't feel intuitive in a few of them. That feedback, however, is just a product owner being picky. This is amazing! I love the notification setup flow, the way that you pull the user further into the experience with the onboarding and first exercises. This is great! I set a daily plan and am looking forward to the reminder notification tomorrow!
Laura Holmes
Maker
@brian_wadley Thanks so much for the review!!! :D Glad you're liking it.
christianoliff ☺

Enjoyable to use but was disappointed that it wasn't optimised for iPad.

I'd like to use it on a larger screen with keyboard... still I like it a lot.

Pros:

easy to get started, nice design

Cons:

No iPad support :-(

Brian Wadley

I added my details in another post.

Pros:

onboarding experience, progress flow, clear eductational content

Cons:

Points purpose is unclear

Osmely Sthefany Velasquez

I was looking for alternatives to learn javascript and this game is perfect for that.

Pros:

Explain extremely easy javascript

Cons:

spanish version and more languages.

Andrii Tynok

Although I'm a coder with some experience, I go through the tasks of Grasshooper from time to time and I'd suggest it to someone, who would like to start coding JS

Pros:

Good and simple explanations, intuitive user interface

Cons:

Would like to see more advanced topics

Samuel Miller
Played with it and it does seem different from all of the other methods of coding for newbies. The real test will be when we get to a project. It is fun to start, but there is a feeling that you don't go anywhere with this. As with any coding course: different methods work for different personalities. I guess 10 lessons are not enough to evaluate the app.
Paul Banks
anyone else think, Google is going to start using this app for recruitment purposes down the road?