The Nintendo Wii
by Hillary Houston and Kirsten Peters
Hilary and Kirsten recently spent some time playing Wii Sports and WarioWare on the Nintendo Wii. Here they report on different human factors aspects of the Wii.
What is a Wii?
The Nintendo Wii, a seventh generation video game console, was launched to the U.S. market in November of 2006. This new system has gained much interest because of its input device and snazzy new features.
The Wii actually has (so far) 3 different controller options. The Wii Remote or “Wii-mote” is used in every game. This handheld controller with sophisticated motion sensing technology combines accelerometers and Bluetooth for wireless control. The wand-like device looks similar to a television remote that gamers wave around in the air (like they just don’t care) like a sword, gun, steering wheel, tennis racket, or whatever a particular game calls for to control their actions in game.
By attaching the Nunchuck controller players get a two handed experience that is particularly handy in games like The Legend of Zelda and Wii Sports Boxing. By adding the Classic controller, players can play downloaded vintage games from older systems like SNES, N64, and even the Sega Genesis. Regardless, the Wii gaming experience is completely wireless. Just make sure that you wear your wrist strap at all times so you don’t accidentally throw your Wii-mote across the room during a heated baseball game or miniboss duel.
So what makes the Wii console so great? As mentioned before, you can download vintage games from older systems but there are actually several things you can do on the Wii besides play games. By hooking your Wii up to your wireless internet connection, you can check worldwide weather and news information. The best part about this is getting to spin the globe and finding weather information for some random city across the world. You can actually surf the internet via your Wii remote, but text entry and browsing can become time consuming and even with the fastest connections, the load time isn’t worth the wait.
Wiiface: Some thoughts from Hillary
“Sure I want to bowl square!”
Good icons can aid a user in making the right choices quickly. Bad icons will do just the opposite, hindering users from making good choices quickly. Some of the icons on the Wii interface are fine. I am personally a big fan of the home button on the remote with the little picture of the house on it. That icon is tried and true. When I push that little home button (accidently or on purpose—more on this later) I know what it is going to do.
Some of the icons are less fine. One that amused me was the “Training Mode” on Wii Sports. It’s particularly amusing because now that I know what it does it actually seems fairly representative. (Read: I actually understand what was going through game-makers Wii heads when they made this.) However, when I had not used it before (and everyone has not used it before at least once) I was very curious what the bowl square game would be like.
How am I supposed to know what that means? Well the Wii Sports makers think that I am supposed to know what that means because they have the name of the game appear in a not so big font in the lower right hand corner of the screen as you hover over the somewhat ambiguous icon. Listen, Wii makers, if I am hovering over and diligently trying to discover the meaning of the bowl square icon in the middle of the screen, I am certainly not looking at the lower right hand corner of the screen. Not helpful.
I like to imagine my dad using this interface. My dad is a jolly man who very much resembles Santa Claus. To my knowledge, my dad (unlike Santa Claus) has never played the Wii. But if my dad were to play the Wii, he would never remember what the bowl square (or any other non-obvious icon) meant. I imagine he and I taking turns to avoid fatigue (as we do when we play DDR) and his turn comes up. He decides that he thinks one of the activities that I have just done (“bowl square” in this case) looks “neat,” and he would like to try it. He asks me where to find this activity and I direct him to “Training Mode” by telling him to click on the green dumbbell. Even though he has just seen me play bowl square and perhaps even played it himself another day, the icons mean nothing to him. He either chooses them by trial and error until he finds the right one, asks me which icon to choose, or somehow locates the written descriptions in the bottom corner, mumbles the descriptions under his breath as he accidently moves the pointer to other icons, and then asks me which icon to click on. What I am trying to say is that experience can make up for mediocre icons in some cases, but not in all cases.
What do I do?
So, you might be facetiously asking if I would rather have ambiguous icons or a huge description of the activity filling the entire screen. But you can just take your sarcasm and tuck it away for later because I was going to tell you that while I do not particularly like all of the icons used, I would much rather have some slightly ambiguous icon than a lengthy page of written directions. Unfortunately, some of the Wii games have these lengthy text directions as well.
Now, we all know that no one actually reads those directions. If you don’t believe me, just ask Kirsten, who flailed about randomly at the start of each game that gave text directions. It is situations like this in which those icons can be put to good use. The Wii interface makes a good attempt, often using graphics to show what you will be doing (holding the control and using a wrist strap no doubt) and using visual representations of the keypad to show the user what to do (See the directions to Madden07 below for an example of excellent directions). But all the directions could be like this! I will not settle for this interface that still expects lazy gamers to read.
Yea for Feedback!
If you don’t want to read and you don’t like the icons at least you won’t be completely in the dark. The Wii conveniently gives you information not only on the screen, but via that cute little remote that you hold in your hand. The remote can vibrate and make sound! I don’t know the exact circumstances under which the Wii remote makes these sounds and movements, but I will consider that a good thing. If I was getting this auditory and tactile feedback at all the wrong times, I would certainly be aware of it. The auditory and tactile feedback is certainly a great addition to the feedback on the screen.
My experience with the game WarioWare makes me want to mention that the auditory and tactile feedback alone is not enough. In Warioware you play lots of really short games really fast. It is not always clear at the conclusion of each game whether or not it has been successfully completed. The burning wick of dynamite representing the time allowed to complete each game continues burning upon successful completion of the task, which enforces the confusion. Most people I have observed using this game deal with this by continuing to repeat the motions of the game until the round has clearly been exited. What I am looking for, Warioware makers, is a big green checkmark or a big red x in the middle of the screen. Would that be so hard? I didn’t think so.
Wiigonomics: Some thoughts from Kirsten
Each of the controllers all have a uni-hand design – they can be used by both right and left handed people. All the buttons are located along the center line of the top side. This is good for a diverse user population but can sometimes create problems. Small handed users may not be able to easily reach all the buttons without effort and large handed users may accidentally hit unwanted buttons while playing. Hillary (who, we can safely say, does not have large hands) hit the home button numerous times while playing both Wii Sports and WarioWare. And while this frustrated her to no end, she did comment that, in general, the remote did feel comfortable in her hand.
The designers of the remote said they wanted to make something that would make people want to pick it up and try using it but also that was comfortable for everyone. Unfortunately, neither myself or Hilary have hands outside of the 95th percentile size range. Therefore, more data is needed to see if the size of the remote is acceptable for all hand sizes and shapes.
The wireless aspect controller gives players can play freely in a variety of body positions. This is important since many of the games require players to simulate large movements. This means that if your butt or arms get numb after playing laying down for awhile you can get up and play standing or leaning on one side or upside down if you choose.
Watch Out!
While the wireless Wii-mote is great in some instances, it also has become a bit of a hazard for some gamers. Imagine you’re in the zone, fighting some megaboss at the end of PaperMario. You’re swing your arms back and forth up and down as you battle this big bad mean dude. All of a sudden you feel a release, a crack, and a howl. You’re wrist strap (which you forgot to replace) has broken, the Wii-mote has been launched across the room and in its path was your very fine Ikea lamp and your very fuzzy but now very upset labradoodle (to be fair, Nintendo vigorously warns players to avoid playing the Wii near labradoodles - they just can’t be trusted).
The site Wiihaveaproblem.com illustrates that the above scenario has not been uncommon among Wii owners. In the Nintendo Wii’s (very detailed) safety precautions, players are told to wear the wrist strap tight while playing and to have at least 15 ft of room to play.
I need a break….
Wii Sports includes the every-popular-yet-highly-disputed break reminder feature. After playing for some time, a window appears on the screen suggesting to players to take a break. Taking frequent breaks is a commonly suggested practice for many activities (both static and dynamic). However, because the text of this screen is long with limited icons or animations and players can exit this screen simply by pressing one button once, many players may not even realize this suggestion is given.
After doing a little digging, I discovered that no available game other than the Wii Sports includes the break reminders. And after doing some thinking about it, I would think that the Wii Sports game would be one of the last games that needs this break reminder. Assume the Wii Sports game is designed to be played with at least two players. When you play with more than one player, you need to take turns in every game except boxing (which can be extremely exhausting so you naturally take breaks). Taking turns = taking breaks, naturally. However, if you are playing a RPG-style game like Zelda, you are most likely playing alone. Anyone who has ever played any sort of RPG game knows how easy it is to get sucked in and loose track of time. These types of games would be a much better candidate for a break reminder. Unfortunately, I have found no evidence that they have one.
Ouch!!!
The break reminder may be one way players can reduce their chances of the infamous ‘Wii Elbow.’ A week after the game system was launched, the Wall Street Journal published an article that dubbed the term “Wii Elbow.” The article reported that players (mostly children) all over the country were complaining of aches and pains in their elbows, shoulders and backs. Many of these players played every day since they bought their system the movements players used during a Wii game were different and most likely new. Most games require movements of the whole arm including the shoulder and elbow and most players have never played video games in this way (potentially with greater force, magnitude and repetition than players are used to).
All of these things combined, the change or increase in movement is a potential cause for these pains. It is also possible that gamers, who are immersed in playing the game, are unknowingly repetitively moving their bodies in certain positions that are considered unsafe. After playing 3 intense rounds of Wii Sports Boxing recently, even I experienced sore shoulders and upper back pain.
The Verdict
Sure we complain, but we love the Wii! Aches and pains, frustrations and confusions aside, playing the Wii is, well, a lot of fun. And if you are tired of Wii Sports (or tired from Wii Sports), there are lots of fun new games coming out soon. These games are really something to look forward to because as designers learn the capabilities of the system, and create new ways to interface with the wireless Wii-mote, playing the Wii will be better than ever.
