GAMING FOR EVERYONE Keynote (FDG)
Talk for Foundation of Digital Games 2019 August 27, 2019, San Luis Obispo
There are over 1 billion people in the world with Disabilities. At Microsoft, our mission is to empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more. Sean Sheffer will walk-through Team Xbox’s mission to empower gamers and health care providers through Microsoft’s Inclusive Design Approach. Highlights include the creation of the Xbox Adaptive Controller, Xbox UX Research, and non-profit partnerships such as Limbitless Solutions and 3-D printed prosthetics.
With Xbox’s partnership with Microsoft Research, we are proud to highlight standout work from Brian Cohn; he will present on the numerous opportunities he’s uncovered at the intersection of neurophysiology and mixed reality technologies, including a series of applications for Stroke, Parkinson’s Disease, and Cerebral Palsy he’s developed through his Ph.D. at the University of Southern California.
Program Manager at XBOX Studios, sheffers@microsoft.com
Ph.D. Student at the University of Southern California, brian.cohn@usc.edu
Microsoft
To learn more about Xbox careers and/or how to make your game more inclusive and accessible for all via Xbox Research, the Xbox Adaptive Controller, or inquire about our Gaming for Everyone non-profit partnerships- e-mail sheffers@microsoft.com
AT - Assitive Technologies - Versus the Adaptive controller - it doesn't help you - it fits you
To Windows and Xbox - the adaptive controller and Xbox OG controller are the same
The regular Xbox controller has 15 buttons and two triggers
Let's do the quick math - on the Xbox controller you have 15 buttons pressed with 4 fingers
The adaptive controller has 19 ports on the back so every function can be externalized with a switch //switch or buttons
I like to say this - where the headphone jack disappears we added 19 - switches .
Screen with all the people who helped - spent 3 years helping out this device
Non-profits:
Sgt Josh Price - non-profit for veterans at hackathon 2015
John Alexander - employees with Cerebral Palsy
Since when is the controller the problem?
1 billion people in the world with Disabilities. We beleve that there exclusion harms us all.
At Microsoft - our mission is to empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more.
We take it literally- If we don't intentionally inlcude people with disabilities in the products we create - we are actively working against our mission. We have to intentionally inlcude people with disabilities with the products we create.
Inclusive design -
The Old definition of disability - person with a health condition
In 2014 - WHO Mismatched human interactions -
When what a person is able to do is out of alignment with what the world expects them to be or to able to perceive.
What's the disability here? - the personal health condition - the wheelchair - here the disability is a world that wasn't built for them.
At Microsoft - think about how disability and impairment are framed - this new ideology is inclusive design
The controller is the best in the world - until it isn't - it makes assumptions about what the body can do
We assume you have two thumbs , fine motor function, skill coordination. We assume reach, and range of motion. We assume you have endurance - because of the weight of the device. What happens if any of these breakdown. What happens if all of them breakdown?
That's when the controller itself - is disabling people.
//I was at the Human Design, Research and Factors Lab - a group of PhDs who's core mission is to find the the ideal headphone size for our Surface Headphones, pressure of keyboard clicks - and they handed me and Xbox controller the size of a basketball. They asked me with all my Xbox experience, why we would even build a controller this size. Maybe it was for shaq. NBA players - large hands. And they laughed - it was to highlight our inherent biases with controller size. The controller wasn't big for big people they said, but to simulate the size and feel of a controller in small hands.
The Inclusive Design Approach has three principles
Recognize Exclusion
Learn from Diversity
Solve one, extend to many
Focus on the outliers - extrapolate out on how those improvements can make a better experience for everyone
Josh - from War Fighter Engage - that helps vets come home
Non-profits we worked with -
Able Gamers - all around US - do a lot of grants, consult and build out controllers
Cerebral Palsy Foundation
Special Effect- The Gamers Charity in UK - Occupational Therapist and a technician and they can setup a controller in your house
Craig Hospital - Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Hospital in Denver Colorado
Warfighter Engaged
The controller had to understand the users- but those who enable the users
The Xbox controller had to see beyond - how do we empower caregivers?
19 ports on the back - for simplicity
//Say you plug a switch in for the A button -
Let's talk about PC gaming - custom controlelrs usually when you remap you have to port to something else
Imagine a caregiver having to now use the customer software to map the input devices -
Unplug from A, replug to X, and remapping is DONE
The primary thought process was caregivers -
We had to recognize the Xbox Controller was the problem and it made a lot of assumptions. When people coulnd't use this controller it was our fault.
We've engaged the gaming accessibility community not on in functionality but in form.
Bryce goes into a room with Richard Elison the CEO of the Cerebal Palsy foundation - Bryce sketched the controller and said the Ceo stopped him for a nice design.
//Sean Choi - Ubisoft assassins' creed subtitles on
The form of this device did not stigmitize people
A lot of AT can infantilize people - because it's candy colored
Mature
Adult Looking
Fit into design and device language
The length of the controller is the same length of an Xbox One S
Solve for one- extend to many -
Started form a place of significant need
The controller fits within this device
Co-Pilot - take two controllers make them look like one
If you can't press these triggers you can remap the button to them
Repetitive Stress Disorder, Carpal Tunnel - you can change up the movement
