Preparing my talk for the Game Design Conference about tangible/gestural interfaces, I ran across this very interesting Wario Ware Walkthrough guide by G. Louie (not only curious because of its ASCII layout).

What struck me as very pertinent here is the nomenclature (the naming) and the description of moves. See for example this intriguing list:

“The Form Baton - The Balance Stone - The Remote Control - The Umbrella - The Handlebar - The Sketch Artist - The Chauffeur - The Samurai- The Tug-of-War -The Waiter - The Elephant - The Thumb Wrestler - The Discard -The Big Cheese - The Janitor - The Dumbbell - The Mohawk - The Finger Food - The Boxer -The Mortar and Pestle - The Diner“

With descriptions such as:

“ The Handlebar
“Turn the Form Baton sideways and grasp the ends firmly in both hands. Like riding a bicyle, perfecting this stance requires grace, steadiness, and tightshorts.”

To do The Handlebar, turn the Wii Remote so that the 2 button is on the right. Place hands over the top so that palms are on the buttons. Uses for this form would be pumping and balancing.
*Does not use remote sensor bar*“

Why do I blog this? what I find relevant here is the way people try to refer to gestures meant to control specific game interactions. Things get more complicated when the interface is gestural: how to name them? how to describe them not only to the users but in game guide? A solution as we se here is to rely on existing metaphors: type of activities (boxer), postures or animal that makes think of posture (elephant), moments (diner) or jobs (chauffeur).

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 27th, 2007 at 5:00 pm and is filed under Tangible/Intangible. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.