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| Xbox 360 Controller |
Human Computer Interfaces looks directly at what the user will be using and how they are designed to help the user, these would be such things as the controls the user has to use, the design of the button configuration for which the players will have to use, the interface device such as the screen and how it will be displayed to the user, user-centered design so how it works around the player whilst interacting & portability of the console/system.
I will be taking these points into consideration when looking at the Xbox 360 console & the PlayStation 3, looking at the design of the HCI which revolves around the consoles & how they have been taken into consideration when being created for such things as the controllers & the interfaces.
Xbox 360 & It's Human Computer Interface:
The Xbox 360 has had to take into consideration the design and interaction players will be making with both the console & the controller meaning that considerate thought and planning would be needed to ensure this was done correctly. Due to the previous creation of the Xbox Original, there were some complaints in the design of the controller & button configuration as the controller was larger than the controllers beforehand with previous consoles before it being made with smaller & more manageable controllers. So when the implication of another console was announced it was a major aspect to take forward to ensure that players were happy with the controllers design & functionality when playing games, this gave Microsoft an understanding for a suitable ergonomic design to take forward and implement.
Microsoft's next problem was to ensure that the controller and the interface design was portable and feasible to movement allowing the player to hold and carry the item easily & use it without problems. This tied in with the user centered design the controller would need, for example taking forward the reviews from the older console would help & support how the design for the second controller would be implemented.
Furthermore looking at the design in more depth, Microsoft needed to ensure that the interaction between the player and console was fluid & consistent to ensure gameplay was efficient and fun for the players. The design for the controller was changed from the initial Xbox Original design due to the player issues brought up, the design was changed with the switch between the d-pad direction buttons (The classic configuration for movement on older controllers such as the PlayStation 1 & Nintendo 64 where they would be used for movement rather than newer toggle axis for more defined movement) and the bottom left toggle as this made it more comfortable for the player. This changed the dynamics and way controllers had been designed for years, due to the changes and implication of the toggle it made the controller much more firm & comfortable to handle and use. With the buttons no longer being the main focal area for movement, the switch between them made perfect sense & created a solid design for the Xbox 360 controller.
Ergonomically speaking the controller was designed to fit and suffice the needs of several different gamers & people meaning it needed to be a universal design which everyone would like and agree with. This has lead to many changes and additional factors to the way the controller is set out, as the design was changed so was the way buttons were pressed & worked in correlation to games, for example triggers were added from the previous controller which gave a better feel for the way racing and shooter games could be played.
This was because of the way the triggers worked, the more they were pressed the more they would input, example being that if you were playing a racing game, the more the trigger was pressed the more of a signal would be sent to the console meaning the car would speed up or slow down. This added a way for players to have some additional control on games with proportional inputs and outputs, due to the way the controller was designed & developed.
PlayStation 3 & It's Human Computer Interface:
PlayStation 3 was the next console to be brought out after the xbox 360 was put on the market for nearly a year. Along with this the PlayStation had many models beforehand which would have been taken into consideration for when the design of the controller and interface was developed. Since the PlayStation 1 the design of the controller was seamlessly the same when its successor the PlayStation 2 was brought out in 2003 which followed a similar controller design. The PS1 was the first controller to fully implement the use of dual toggles allowing proportional control for movement of characters and in game objects. Before this was put onto the controller, it worked around the use of 1 single d-pad set of buttons which were 4 arrow buttons which controlled the movement of the player. They worked in a way so that the up and down directional buttons would move the player backwards and forwards & the right and left directions would turn the player. Depending on how these buttons were pressed in a coalition with each other would depend how the character on the game would output movement. For example if you were to press both the left and up directional buttons the character would run forward however turn towards the left, this also worked in the same way for the right and up directionals. The amount of force which were inputted into the buttons would determine the overall output for the on screen movement, the amount would vary depending on the force in which the player decided to use to move.
This was a successful & simple design for controller input however it lacked a certain complexity for games which needed more control and user input to play the game effectively. This then introduced the use of a dual-toggles, which works on an axis allowing the player to freely move it in any direction and input varying values for the gameplay movement of a character. This allowed the user to have full control in the way players were controlled in game. The toggles paved a way to allow more flowing movement with instead of sluggish direction movement which was slow and unrealistic, they could now use two toggles to control the way the player faced and the way the player walked, both on seperate toggles meaning a more complex way of movement which had never been introduced before. The toggles allowed the player to determine the exact amount of movement for each input, so they could run fast, however only slightly turn to the left. This would be a struggle to perform with directional buttons.
Since this design and implementation of the controller toggles has increased the complexity of such games like First Person Shooters, racing games, RPG's & third person shooters. As the ability to varying inputs for the movement & control these games could be made more complex and increase the functionality of games. Due to this design and the user centered design it was implemented into the PS2 & then into the PS3 keeping the toggles and button configuration the same with only a change to the way the back two buttons worked. The controller had always been a selling point for PlayStation fans as it hasn't changed which meant that for older gamers & players they could still use the controller as they would have with the older generation of controller. However they changed the 'triggers' to be similar to the way the Xbox 360 had theres however shaped them differently which was a mistake as they became very hard to use. The were shaped the opposite to the way a trigger works which means that your finger could sometimes slip off due to pressing it too hard, this meant that your grip on the controller was a problem to get accustom too, as it was deemed as the controller was quite small & hard to grip effectively.
The button configuration for the main inputs were kept the same & similar to the way all controllers have been designed throughout gaming history, the PlayStation started with the buttons being, x, square, circle & triangle which the Xbox took into consideration & used, A, B, X & Y as they're main buttons, these were a simple 4 configuration which most controllers use.
This was the main design for how the controller was developed and created through time and implemented to work with the PlayStation 3, the ergonomic design of it has been taken into consideration and due to its success throughout 3 generations was kept the same with only a slight change to the back trigger buttons. Overall the HCI for the PlayStation has been quite successful with the controller being a selling point for most players throughout the development of the console. This taken into consideration in future developments of the console I can see that the controller will be taken forward & designed similarly to the previous consoles.
Evaluation Between Both Consoles:
Human Computer Interfaces has had to be taken into serious consideration for the design of such controllers for the consoles. As they are in competition with each other, the design and development would need to be ideal for a large range of players worldwide. The controller design for both consoles is very similar with the only difference being the shape of the controller & the placement of the toggles/d-pad. As the consoles were developed by different companies they had to be different designs, although they kept a similar trend. This is a universal design which most controllers are developed around because of the user friendly-ness & simplicity of use.
I find that both controllers suit the console they were designed for with the designs from previous consoles having an impact on the newer designs. Between the two designs I would say the Xbox 360 has taken the design into further consideration looking at what the users wanted from the new console & implemented the new features into a very well designed controller. The use of new triggers and toggle configuration is a trademark design for the Xbox 360 and is highly preferred worldwide for its 'feel good' design.
Along with this I feel the PlayStation have outlived their design for their controller as its 3 generations old and with the advancement of gaming such use of a small controller isn't beneficial for extreme/long end gaming as it can become a strain on the person holding the controller. As its small it is more easier to use for children rather than aldults with larger hands which can also be seen as a problem for when they want to play, as its a struggle to handle.
