Yourself?

Wii

I just saw the E3 footage of the Wii on youtube and I just can't help but feel excited about it. I think it'll open up lots of possibilities for disabled gamers, and I think it'll be possible for me to hack something up so my grandma can play games and not feel so bored at home. She has stroke on one half of her body so games are out cos she can only use half of it and most simple games only exercise your thumbs and not much else.
It would be good if you can use it as a sort of weight training tool as well. So that games can help you in life.

I think that's really important. Designers now are starting to fix real problems in the world. We're still interested in luxury for luxury's sake of course, look at the 3000 bux per squarefoot thing. 16 million dollars to live in a penthouse apartment, with bespoke services. But with the development of the 100USD laptop, (now increased to 140USD), and the development of a low cost interactive platform like the Wii, we are opening up the information world for more people to access.

Imagine a world without YouTube, MSN, Download services, SMSes, E-Mails. And imagine living in such circumstances and trying to compete with people who've used these things all their lives. Information and the access to it is the next barrier to wealth for poorfolk, and unlike access to schools, access to information is much cheaper and easier.

Still, we can do better as designers. We can always do better. We can make things more ergonomic, more suitable for all the different types of people out there. We design for the most average person, but what happens when we grow older and deviate further from the average? What if we lose an arm, a leg? How do we live in a world that assumes you are at least 1.5-1.7m tall, 40-80kg, right handed, mobile and literate? Is it a wonder then, that people who have accidents, who hurt themselves in the comfort of their own home, are largely deviations from this average person?

Of course, I'm not saying that we don't develop objects that are suitable for as many people as possible. That should be the object of design. But we should also consider the comfort or develop alternatives for the people who are not that average.

Up till now, I have no idea if flicking the switch down is supposed to turn the lights on or off by default. In Singapore flicking it down switches the lights on. How about England? America? I know in Australia, half my lights had to be switched on by flicking the switch up.

posted by Downhere. @ 4:46 pm