Gastcollege Hanzehogeschool

I n n o v e r e n m e t k l a n t e n

Co-design of a (Wii) game

for the blind and sighted

Liliane Kuiper-Hoyng

[email protected]

I n n o v a t e w i t h c u s t o m e r s

[email protected]

Nice to meet you…

I n n o v e r e n m e t k l a n t e n

Industrial Design

15 years in R&D


Personal evolution

Design of a User friendly VCR for elderly people

User interface testing

Functional requirements

Future Innovation concepts

UI Design

Co-creation / Co-design - elderly people – citizens – blind children


Why develop with end users?

inconsistency between what users say in

response to surveys and their actual behavior

users are unaware of needs and wishes

do not possess sufficient innovative visions or

ideas

From: Co-creation and the new landscapes of design

Elizabeth B.-N. Sanders & Pieter Jan Stappers

users are expert of their experiences

co-creation offers methods and tools

innovative visions created by

multidisciplinary team

uses can help to steer design decisions during

all development phases

co-creation / co-design

classical


Levels of Participation

User test

existing products

Tester test prototypes

Informant information during development

and evaluation of prototypes

Design partner collect data & initiate ideas

collaboration during development

and evaluation of prototypes

Participation roles

[Druin A., 2002, The Role of children in the design of technology]

Decoration

Manipulation

Tokenism

Roger Hart’s participation ladder

[Hart. R., 1992, Children’s participation from tokenism to citizenship]

Assigned and informed

Consulted and informed

Child initiatied,

shared decisions with adults

Child initiated and directed

Adult initiatied,

shared decisions with children

Involve ≠ Listen


How the project started

A game for

blind children?

NO

We want a

game for all!


Challenges for blind children

Blind children can play special audio games,

but other children can not follow the game

There are no games where blind and sighted

children can play on an equal basis

There are not many exercises for blind children

to train their locomotion skills


The Goal

Game for blind & sighted children

Play on equal basis

Improve locomotion skills (Wii- Game)


Not just a game: a Serious Game

Pain relief Physical therapy Training (surgeons)

Edutainment Awareness

Attitude change

Group process

Against All Odds

learning objective / engaging interactive media / game element - persuasive games


Approach

Collaborative design

Blind & sighted children

become part of

multidisciplinary team

Game

Development Facititate

Creative Process

Project

Magagement

Project Stakeholder

Locomotion & Blindness Experts

Blind & sighted

children


How to involve all parties?

Co-design with children

Project management

Movement Experts / School


Co-creation steps

create awareness

define shared goal

idea creation

experience with

new technology

evaluate and combine ideas

create team create ideas evaluate & select

shared

concepts

build & iterate

evaluate & optimize

experience concept

look for mutual ideas


Create team

Selection of participants

• problem owners / lead users experts

• stakeholders (internal / external)

• designers

Motivational aspects

• monetary reward

• intrinsic motivation:

involvement with outcome

• helping others / being involved

• fun to participate


Create team

Analyze relationship with the subject:

• Create awareness of their fun/interesting

gaming experiences and preferences.

Create shared goal:

• experience adventures

• being smart

• learn new things

• makes you laugh


Create ideas

experience with new technology

• play Wii and keep a journal:

• what they like/dislike

• how to make the Wii more suitable

idea creation - assisted

• role playing adventure

• creating world with Lego bricks

and toy animals

• user walk through of the interaction

(Wii Balance Board & Wii-mote)


Evaluate & select

Share intermediate results:

• adopt ideas from others

Present final ideas to group:

• rated

• positive and negative feedback


Shared concepts

Create a list of mutual elements:

Functional requirements


Build and iterate

Game was simulated in a gym:

• “experience” the basic elements

of the game concept

• audio feedback:

musical instruments or voice

• sighted children had limited

vision glasses

Difficult navigation situations

were “solved” in situ


NB: that was a shortcut….

Translate raw material:

make it “look real”

Create clusters based on similar

personal preferences:

describe fictional characters

(persona’s)

Elaborate on solutions for different

characters

Getting familiar with all concepts

(persona’s)

Format to duplicate evaluation

methodology from designers

Give important role to stakeholder

Selection of most relevant

functionality

shared concepts evaluate & select


Prototype evaluation

1. Navigation and orientation

• First focus: navigation, orientation, audio feedback

• equal challenge for the blind and sighted children

• two different concepts for navigation

2. Fun and game play

• Second focus: design and evaluating

game fun experience and the game play

• Introduction of mini challenges:

• enrich the game experience

• provide specific locomotion exercises


The game


Evaluation of navigation

Children prefer rotation of the

viewing perspective, however:

• blind children tend to lose their

orientation

• less possibilities to train the children’s

balance.

Faster speed for walking backwards

Feedback about the direction of

your own movements.


Evaluation of navigation

Balance and diversity in audio

feedback:

• too much feedback clutters the total

experience.

Create a tutorial level, explain:

• all sounds

• how the controls work


Evaluation of gameplay & fun

More challenging to play and to repeat playing the

game in the future:

• rewards and penalties during the mini challenges

• an overall performance score at the end of a level.

More (funny) interactions:

• Exclamations when you hit the wall

• More interaction with Tyrie


Evaluation of gameplay & fun

More competition - high score listing

• not possible in this version of the Wii platform

More adventurous:

• vary the type of mini-challenges

• make it less predictable which challenge appears where.

Very rewarding that blind children can receive

and give feedback on other players!


Conclusions

Improvement of locomotion needs to be measured A method was created for longitudinal testing of the improvement

of locomotion skills. This will be implemented in schools for blind

children

It is possible to offer an equal game challenge

for blind and sighted children Smart combination of audio & visual & tactile feedback


Conclusions

Co-creation works!

• valuable method to develop applications for

children with visual impairment

• many valuable insights and experiences for the developers

– creative input from children throughout the process

• a lot of the final solutions were created by the children

…but needs to be planned

It is possible to adapt methods for special target groups


Questions ?


Traditional research vs co-creation

Anonymous stakeholders

Do not re-use people

Do not explain research purpose

Ask opinions not creativity

Experts interpret meaning

Respondents do not care

No time to go deep

One dimensional focus

[Promise, Research 1020 Conference, Sex lies and Chocolate:

How communities can change the way you think about innovation for good]

Tell them who you are

Work with same consumers

over an extended period of time

Explain what we are doing and why

Ask creativity and opinions

Ask consumers help to understand

the implications

Look for respondents that really care

Overcome the superficial:

create relationship and trust

Diverse perspactives provide

the seed of innovation


Questions?

Documents

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