Outside Opinion: Stu Thomas on next-gen console aesthetics

November 27, 2006

Curious about the process that goes into designing a video game console – but from a different perspective entirely – we decided to get an outside opinion. So QJ asked New Zealand-based industrial designer Stuart Thomas on his take on the form factors of the Sony PS3, Microsoft Xbox 360, and Nintendo Wii. Quite a fortuitous find, actually: for his final year in college (2004) Stuart actually had come up with a console design idea of his own, called Tier Four, which you are looking at right now.

Although the inside of a console is all about performance – and thus not Stuart’s cup of tea – on the outside, where console touches flesh and blood, ergonomics takes (or should take) precedence. As Stuart revealed his opinions of each console’s design – as well as his experiences with designing the Tier Four concept – we begin to gain an insight into the importance of making a game platform really fit in your hand (not to mention wherever the TV is at), and perhaps, an insight into similar minds behind the design teams at Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo.

Here’s a clue: he also thought of a controller with an accelerometer built inside – back in 2004. And actually looks pretty good in concept.

First thing’s first I guess, could you please tell us a little bit about yourself? Things like where you went to school, what your major was, gaming history perhaps?

My name is Stuart Thomas, I’m 24 and I currently live in Wellington, New Zealand. I moved down here in 2001 to study at Massey University where I gained my Bachelor of Design, Majoring in Industrial design in 2004.

My memory isn’t the greatest, but I do remember spending some time on the Atari 2600 back in the mid 80’s. I wasn’t allowed to have a console of my own (Parents won the 2600 from somewhere), but I had mates who had Mega Drives and SNES‘s, and I was able to get my gaming fix from them until I won a Mega Drive from Pizza Hut in 1995. During the generation after that time was spent at the arcades after school, or at a friends place who had one of these new fandangled machines. Mum sort of knew that I enjoyed gaming and let me get a Dreamcast, followed by a Cube a few years later. I played a few PC games along the way, but nothing serious until Wolfeinstein multiplayer in the Labs at Uni during the workshop lunch break.

Other than playing games, I enjoy having the casual roll on my skateboard, drawing on paper and now getting into digital painting. Got to have music playing while I’m doing something, and rad times drinking with my mates.

How did the idea for Tier Four come about? Hear that, and his opinions of the PS3, Wii, and 360, and more pictures of the Tier Four concept, after the jump! And we’d like to thank Stuart for the time he’s taken to answer our questions! All pictures courtesy of his portfolio website.

Here’s a clue: he also thought of a controller with an accelerometer built inside – back in 2004. And it actually looks pretty good in concept.

First thing’s first I guess, could you please tell us a little bit about yourself? Things like where you went to school, what your major was, gaming history perhaps?

My memory isn’t the greatest, but I do remember spending some time on the Atari 2600 back in the mid 80’s. I wasn’t allowed to have a console of my own (parents won the 2600 from somewhere), but I had mates who had Mega Drives and SNES‘s, and I was able to get my gaming fix from them until I won a Mega Drive from Pizza Hut in 1995. During the generation after that time was spent at the arcades after school, or at a friends place who had one of these new fandangled machines. Mum sort of knew that I enjoyed gaming and let me get a Dreamcast, followed by a Cube a few years later. I played a few PC games along the way, but nothing serious until Wolfeinstein multiplayer in the Labs at Uni during the workshop lunch break.

How did the idea for the Tier Four concept come about, and where did the name come from?

In our final year we had to do a project of our own choice that goes for the whole year and is the the most important assignment of all. About three weeks in, I still had no idea what to do and had a presentation due the following week. I asked my flatmates what I should do, and they suggested I design a console since I liked playing games, and so I said “ok”. And that’s what I did my project on for the whole year.

The name for the console didn’t really surface till the second semester when I had the form of the console finalized. I played lots of Quake 3 on my Dreamcast, and thats where the word “Tier” came from. “Four” just followed on since it had four players, a four disc changer, the top surface was divided into four sections, plus I wanted to throw in a number so for a graphic element in the name.

Could you please give us a run-down of the construction of the device? What components were used and how was the whole thing put together?

The models are pretty much shells of plastic super-glued and held together with bog (builder’s fill). In more detail, I shaped up a MDF (custom wood) mold of the console and bent acrylic around it to form the outer case. The words, numbers and buttons were all done with a laser cutter that helped me save a lot of time for the amount of detail it provided. Molds of the controller were created and then vacformed with styrene (plastic stuff) so I could create part lines like a real controller. I bought a PlayStation and butchered the AV port from that and a USB port from a PC motherboard so that things would actually plug into it. Bog was the real champion as it was used to create those slight lips on the console and fill in any extra holes I made during the whole process. After I finished up painting all the parts, it was like assembling a model plane kit but with more caution as you couldn’t go down the road to buy another face grill.

What kinds of things do you have to take into consideration when designing a gaming console, specifically the controller?

Theres a lot to think about what has to go into any product, specially it was only me doing the whole thing, so there were some areas I couldn’t really think about like what the CPU power would be and what kind of operating system would run it so that developers can make games for it. The most important thing was ergonomics as you’ve got to find the most comfortable form and make sure that someone with tiny hands can have the same control as someone with massive ones. Shape of the handles and buttons, button placement, long term effects, thumb reach and limits were important factors of ergonomics and were discovered through mock ups and testing.

I also had to think about semantics so that the product would guide people how to use it as no one really reads manuals. The simple use of icons and form can have a huge impact with how people interact with the product.

At the start of the project I sent a whole bunch of questionnaires to find out what people liked, wanted and disliked with their console experiences as in the end they are going to be the ones playing on it, not just me. This helped me write me own brief for the console so when I was designing it I knew what things to put in and what things I would need to push further. Other things I had to consider is the consoles future environment, where will it be placed, what materials to use, cooling of the parts inside, and making sure that the two products are linked through form.

I assume the controller must have been especially challenging to design, it looks pretty unique, is there any sort of special functionality built into it?

Looking back I could have done my major project on just the controller as it is the primary way of interacting with games. The main thing would of been the whole twisting element. I made a mockup that consisted of two handles joined by two bars and anyone who picked it up would start twisting it left and right. It felt natural to them and they really liked having that option of control even though I wasn’t my main intension of the design. After that the search was on to find out how I would be able to record these movements. Accelerometers were the answer by putting one inside each handle since they were small, cheap and even the manufacturer thought it would be a good application for them.

How did you envision the accelerometer being used in actual gameplay?

Things like driving games (similar to the NeGcon controller) with the whole twisting motion, possibly control the camera rotations in 3rd person games, or use the whole tilt sensing for a flight simulator and control the planes elevators by rotating each handle, or quickly flicking a handle down to reload your gun in a FPS. There are lots of possibilities for how it could be used, I just wanted to give developers another option to use so that people could interact with their games. I also thought it would be interesting trying to keep the controller stable while it was rumbling to give the player another interesting challenge.

What do you think of the designs for the three next generation consoles from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo? Be as candid as you like.

I put a smile on my face when Nintendo and Sony announced that they were using motion sensors in their controllers. Out of the three, I love the Wii’s console design due to it’s minimalism, nice lines, and honesty (they know it’s not as powerful as its competitors so they kept it tiny) even though its a small box. I wasn’t too impressed with the 360 when it first came out, I wasn’t really a fan of the face as there wasn’t a nice grid layout of the ports and slots, but it’s a lot better than the PS3 that is pretty much a fattened PS2 design.

The Wii hasn’t been released here yet so I haven’t been able to see what it feels like, but the 360 controller is the most comfortable piece of hardware I’ve held in my hands. It’s a pity that the D-pad doesn’t rock well for fighters, other than that its just feels rad for everything else. I was able to hold a SIXAXIS/DS2 controller and thought it felt to light for its size, plus the convex triggers was a U-turn in ergonomic design. Not sure what Sony was doing with their console design as in the past they has always really nice unique forms and choice of materials for their own products.

The one thing that annoys me with this next gen of consoles is the amount of updates you have to download to get your system running properly. It seems more like a rushed after thought and making the simple console more like a PC. Sure it’s a great way to fine tune and solve problems for them, but in the past consoles didn’t need updates to play some games or work the way they were intended.

Which console do you think has had the best industrial design in the history of… um, ever?

This question has really stumped me for while, thinking of the pros and cons of all the consoles over the past 20 years. I’d have to say the Wii would be the most unique with its control scheme, as all past iterations have been an evolution of the generation before them by adding extra buttons to the controller, better graphics, or allowing other types of media to be used on the console. These were just stepping up from the ones before, as the Wii now offers us a new way to interact with games rather than compete in a visual power war. That’s what I think for now, but I’m still open for discussion on this huge open ended question as I just wanna play FPS (games).

Here are pictures of the design process and the final concept product Stuart put up at his portfolio website. The controller, especially, is interesting, incorporating the NeGcon’s split-swivel feature, and some very unique “flex-triggers” that are quite unlike the MS triggers or bumpers, or Sony shoulders. Other Tier Four features you won’t find in any of the three next-gens include the aforementioned swivel-tray four-disc changer – yes, disc CHANGER – and its ability to be mounted on a wall.

We’d like to thank Stuart for the time he’s taken to answer our questions!