Tim Tan Huynh [UX]

Accessibility: Nintendo Switch

  1. Overview
  2. Process
    1. Understand: Empathize
    2. Understand: Define
    3. Explore: Ideate
    4. Explore: Prototype
    5. Materialize: Test
    6. Materialize: Iterate
    7. Finalize
  3. Deliverables
  4. Takeaways

Overview

Nintendo Switch design

Four colleagues and I proposed to make the Nintendo Switch more accessible to low-vision players. We did this project for a course about accessible and inclusive design. It involved secondary and primary research, expert interviews, and user testing. The final output are mockups for font-scaling, screen filters, and colored button-covers. We created a presentation to summarize the output.

Roles:

  • Co-researcher (secondary, primary)
  • Co-presenter
  • Co-writer

Skills:

  • Critical thinking
  • Community engagement
  • Self-Evaluation
  • Synthesis
  • Video/audio editing (Final Cut Pro X)

Process

Understand: Empathize

Select problems to solve

A few of us had personal interest and experience with video games. This medium is highly visual. Yet, the Switch hardware and software can create barriers for visually-impaired people

Use a framework: ask high-level questions about prior context and predicted outcomes

We did a cycle-of-exclusion exercise. This practice involved interrogating the Switch’s creation, its intended users, and actual users:

  1. Who made it?
  2. Why was made it?
  3. How was it made?
  4. Who was it made for?
  5. Who uses it?

We also interrogated our ideas to better define our approach to the problem:

  1. What to redesign?
  2. Why redesign it?
  3. Who will benefit?
  4. How will we do it?
  5. Where will it fit?
  6. When will we do it?

Our prior experiences and tacit knowledge were the basis for our answers. We did some factual research as well.

Understand: Define

Present ideas to peers and experts

We submitted our framework notes to the instructor and presented them to classmates. The consensus was favorable, but peers noted that we could narrow our focus. The instructor provided guidance and advice: “It’s not about design, it’s about meeting needs.”

Do secondary research about relevant and related topics.

We searched for popular content that discussed vision impairments and video games. We also searched for information about accessible media and vision health. The following sources were helpful:

Do primary research as users and as evaluators

A few of us experimented with games and systems that we owned. We noted features, or lack thereof, that impacted visually-impaired users. I sought user stories on a GameFAQs message board. I asked, “What are your experiences with gaming and the Nintendo Switch in particular?”

Explore: Ideate

Articulate barriers as well as solutions with justifications

We had each examined one barrier that visually-impaired players encounter. We also proposed solutions and justified them with evidence (examples or research). Together, we wrote a proposal of design solutions:

  1. Small text: Font- and UI-scaling
  2. Uniformly-styled buttons: Colors for directional and face buttons
  3. Limited alternatives to text: Guidelines for narration and audio cues
  4. Limited color-modifying options: Options for display palettes
  5. Limited alternatives to audio/visuals: Guidelines for captions and subtitles, other cues

Get expert feedback and adjust plans as needed

The instructor connected us with an inclusive designer who was a senior employee of a major video-game company. This expert explained software architecture and development cycles for video games. Based on their feedback of our solutions, we narrowed the scope of our project:

  1. Low-vision users (instead of all visually-impaired users)
  2. Three barrier-solutions (instead of five)
    1. Font- and UI-scaling
    2. Colored buttons
    3. Options for screen filters

Explore: Prototype

Develop prototypes to make ideas real and showable

Three of my colleagues each developed prototypes, using Figma, for one solution. For visual guidance, they used the official system-interface and controller designs. My other colleague and I prepared for the final report. I also continued my discussion with users via GameFAQs.

Materialize: Test

Show-and-tell prototypes with experts and users

Through recruiting and referral, we had separate chats with four people. One person was an expert in assistive technology and a special-needs educator. The other three people were gamers who had different visual impairments. We had some notable insight, opinions, and suggestions:

  1. People with certain cognitive impairments need uniformly-colored buttons
  2. Users preferred colored glyphs instead of colored buttons
  3. Users preferred a combination of pre-set filters and custom ones
  4. Button glyphs could be convex (raised) for tactile guidance

Materialize: Iterate

Modify prototypes based on findings

My colleagues modified the prototypes that they had developed. One colleague and I had the same idea: custom button-covers would be more desirable, feasible, and viable than custom controllers. Button-covers could be offered in both same-colored and different-colored sets. The following iterations were the final solutions that we presented:

  1. Font-scaling: slider with sizes represented as percentages, not as fixed units
  2. Colored buttons: replaceable button-covers, not new controllers
  3. Screen filters: both pre-set and bespoke settings that can be edited and saved
Mockup of Nintendo Switch font-scaling
Mockups of Nintendo Switch button covers
Mockup of Nintendo Switch screen filters

Finalize

Self-evaluate and summarize completed work

We outlined the barriers, process, and solutions of the project. I ensured that we articulated and acknowledged the shortcomings of our proposed solutions. Some barriers partially remained and some potential ones emerged.

  1. Font- and UI-scaling: Fonts and UIs would only be re-sized in system menus
  2. Colored buttons: Not all users could access or afford button-covers
  3. Screen filters: Not all users would benefit in local, shared-screen multiplayer modes
  4. Software features: Font-scaling and display palettes are immediate yet intermediate solutions

Deliverables

Takeaways

People within minority groups are still individuals

The visually-impaired gamers with whom we communicated had a diverse range of needs. Some of their respective needs were opposites to each other. So, a solution to one barrier might ignore, or even worsen, another barrier.

The Power of One is real

Communicating with one expert or one user can have a profound effect on a project’s direction. This effect amplifies if this person’s experience is especially unique.

Inclusive design involves interrogating yourself

Barriers often arise from lack of consideration. Proposed solutions to one barrier might lead, directly or indirectly, to another barrier.

Acknowledgements

  • Dr Sambhavi (Sam) Chandrashekar
  • Laura K
  • Swakirti S
  • Tammy T
  • Siqing Z