#playful workshop

Going into the workshop again the day after the first prototype we had a quite clear vision of our second iteration. We went back to our prior idea of creating something in unison, an integrated device which holds all our tactile mechanisms in one place. We knew we wanted a box, to be able to hide all the electronics away from the user - to create a slightly magical feeling of not knowing how it works beneath the surface. Me and Axel felt as though we had succeeded in making a tactile handle-bar which was fun for us to play with, so we wanted to make one more. The reason for this being that we decided one handle-bar to control the going forward key, while the other would control the going backwards key. To go forward the user needs to twist the handle-bar towards the body, whilst going backwards the user needs to twist the handle-bar away from the body. This is to create some sort of difference between forwards and backwards, and to keep the user thinking of what they are doing.

These little pins were made for the handle-bars to work the way we intend them to - to work accordingly when twisted:

We finished up with a more than decent device, in my eyes. When thinking in terms of “fun” we gathered insights of the prototype being fun in a social sense, with it being a ridiculous controller - making the user think of the controller more than what is usually aimed for, and for it involving tactile feelings and haptic feedback. We aimed for a controller where the user gets to explore many different inputs and outputs, having tactile mechanics like a button with some elasticity, a switch that was “flickable”, and two twisters moving in different directions. It was a really nice experience being able to explore different types of inputs, outputs and feedback. Seeing how these different variations changed the notion of fun was very evolving and I feel as though I have learnt a lot.

We found out that this controller works best in a social context, since the user has to figure out what button does what and constantly needs to be aware of these mechanics, even the simplest of games can be hard to play. This might not be fun for an alone user, but in a social context it spurs ridiculousness and would in that case be considered fun. The effort we put in into making the different buttons and mechanics tactile and tangible can also be considered into the enhancement of fun. It’s a nice feeling to get feedback, and to feel as though you’re twisting something in real life whilst seeing something happening on the screen instead of disconnecting the physical feedback from the visual. In our case we have explored physical inputs and outputs in connection to digital gaming, where the two doesn’t have to match to be able to work. Us twisting the handle-bar actually doesn’t have anything to do with Mario running forwards, but it’s an exploration we made and it enhances the fun.

Here’s a display of me playing Mario using our prototype: