Helping a Quadrapeligic to Play Video Games
Disclaimer: For the privacy of our client, his photo and name have been changed alongside certain details about his movements.

This is John. John was in an accident and is now bound to a wheelchair.
With limited arm, wrist, hand dexterity, John has a limited capacity for fine motor movements.
Predominately using his wrist to accomplish tasks which require fine motor skills,
the team was challenged to create a new kind of joystick that would allow John to play the games he desires.

Understanding John's Needs

John's desires

Currently, John cannot successfully play the games he desires.
John wants to play video games comfortably for periods of up to 1 hour of playtime.
John wishes to play games that require a user to be highly dexterous. These games include first-person shooters.

This project must develop a joystick that will allow John to play both effectively and comfortably.

Usability Testing
To begin the process of designing possible solutions for John, the project conducted extensive user evaluations to guage John's abilities.
Analyzed by video and interview, the project focused on comparing John's feedback with various types of joysticks.
It was extremely important for the the team to thoroughly understand John's abilities.
With the project becoming ever more aware of John's behaviour, the team felt better prepared to address John's needs.

Inevitably, the team deduced that the project's primary goal was to ensure John's comfort.

Some Snap Shots from User Testing

Understanding Body Composition

Exploring Alt. Joysticks

Capturing Degrees of Freedom

Refining the Problem Statement

John's range of movement prohibits him from establishing proper
grip, control, and reliability with conventional joysticks.
This prohibits John from playing the video games he wants desires.
Our alternative must provide similar inputs to two joysticks,
be able to be controlled by john for up to one hour,
and be able to be used in conjunction with the button alternatives.

Most importantly, this project must accomplish John's chief desire: to have fun

Designing & Prototyping
Morphology Matrix
Decision Matrix

Refining and Building the Design

After Conducting user testing and design evaluations,
the team settled on a design that satisifed our user's needs.

The Effect of Covid-19

Unfortunately, the design could not be physically built and tested. The project presents a highly detailed CAD model and a cohesive set instructions instead. With this, the project can be easily built by a team in the future.
While this prevented the project from re-testing the design,
based on our feedback from John, the project presents an effective joystick replacement.

External

Internal

Thank you to the team

Client: John, Team: Carter Silvey, Edward Wolfe, Eric Osherow