PC gamers have risen in recent years and gained a lot of exposure in common channels like YouTube or Twitch and maybe you are one or know a person at least.
A few features are long sessions, very competitive, want to hit the 60 frames per second in games, and get lost in immersion. And this latter is most important as they frequently see games as an escape from worldly issues, or simply try to have as much fun as possible.
So in the community of PC gaming their general health is decreasing or quite frankly being ignored. You may assume that this has been further affected by the global pandemic. In the course of my research, I found that over half of the PC gamers don’t think proactively about their health. And they all appear to play more than 5 hours a day with just one break here and there.
This prompted me to make a change.
How might I get PC gamers to have more meaningful breakswithout breaking their immersion?
-min.png)
This is a mock up of the product I made in Blender.
I am not at all familiar with Blender or 3D modeling in general.
What I basically did here was follow a two hour youtube video.
The goal of Medgram is to provide pc gamers more self-awareness or enable self-actualization. As being immersed leads to not taking enough breaks, Medgram uses non-intrusive methods to motivate taking breaks, moving more, and eating.
Real-time & emerging technology.
This innovation uses AI and holograms, both emerging technology, to visualize your body in a 3D model.
There’s also a library of models to choose from if wanted. This model would be placed on your desk, or somewhere in view, to then know what part of your body needs attention and health risk prevention.
This product analyzes heart coherence to know what state you’re in, this way it can find the best moment to alert you and provide instant information. When needed it will cast a notification, could be visual or with audio, and would for example by pointing out what needs more attention and what to do of it.
It could even know when you need some motivational support depending on your emotional state.
I gained knowledge of what types of injuries PC gamers sustain and how these are prevented and ‘cured’.
There are many products and software that help prevent injuries. An example would be F.lux, which changes the color of your screen to reduce eyestrain, and Gunnar, glasses that actually do the same thing as F.lux but with a different medium.
The most common type of injuries in the pc gaming world:
- Carpal tunnel syndrome: nerves in your arms and hand weaken and reduce the motion within. Caused by bad ergonomics and overuse.
- Tendonitis: Swelling occurs on the joints of hands, fingers, arms and legs. Caused by overuse of these joints.
- Eye strain: Inflammation or dry eyes. Caused by looking at the screenwithout taking breaks for longer than one should.
I then did ten laddering interviews to gain more information on what the target audience does to prevent injuries and if they take enough breaks in between gaming sessions. Interestingly enough, all respondents didn’t really think much about their health but the cause was totally different for all the respondents. Anand from India said that he doesn’t take breaks because he doesn’t have that much time to play games and he wants to have as much fun as possible in that little time. Thomas from Belgium couldn't care less about taking breaks and wants to grind some rankings in their video game of choice.
Through all my research, I realized that breaks could be the starting point to combat physical, emotional, and mental problems. I focused on giving pc gamers a way to have more meaningful breaks instead of the usual smoke or bio break.
Insights
This part showcases the different concept direction I made.
Name Glass O’.
The auto glass-of-water dispenser.
It works as a reminder that would dispense a glass of water, signaling it’s time to take a break and hydrate.
Name: It’s a me!
A device that would resemble your body on screen as your game. Limbs are all separated to give accurate feedback on what needs movement with a visual signal. It would use your webcam and AI to track motion and how long you have been sitting.
Name: StayCalm.
An anti-gravity device in your room. This would start manipulating the gravity as your mentality gets worse. Resulting in having to stay calm to play. When you start levitating, it’s time to stay calm.
.png)
After researching various pc gamer gadgets and their appeal, ranking what actually generates intrinsic motivation and what could help achieve self-actualization the most, I refined my idea. I took the concept "It's a me" and reframed it. The idea of using visual cues to give gamers a 'notification' works, an example would be seeing a person with broken armor on the corner of your screen prompting you to repair your gear.
I also found that many gadgets are physical as the screen has to be separated from any distraction or needs attention.
This is how I eventually came up with Medgram. Giving the pc gamers more control to balance health and gaming but staying in the game. A non-intrusive approach towards staying healthy.
Iteration 1 - I love AI's
As I have to prototype what a hologram would be like, I started with the model first. This model I made is a base model used for other prototypes. I made this model by using an image processing AI developed by Google. Making this prototype helped me envision the look and feel and enabled me to have a starting point.
.gif)
Iteration 2 - Why are there so many cells?
Following the first basic model, I installed a blender and followed some online courses. I learned how to reshape models and delete impurities. Again I'm no 3D modeler or animator but I do know how to follow courses and read manuals.
Prototyping
For this prototype I wanted to check out the functionality of hologram in a setting. Of course I don't know how to make a hologram, who does?! So to test out different methods to still convey the context of the concept I did the following.
Iteration 1 - How to make a hologram
I made it by stitching 4 pieces of transparent plastic to have a type of dome. I then made a video of the model times four in Premiere pro to later be able to reflect it through the dome. More or less the hologram is designed to enhance experience. Namely the ability to maintain immersion in game because the hologram is not distracting enough.
Iteration 2 - AR / Snap / Spark
I started to understand the ins and outs of 3D modeling and thought of how I would add interaction and real-world application. Making a hologram itself is not really realistic but that won’t stop me from getting close. I learned about encoding 3D models through AR and checked out Snapchat and Spark. I choose to make an application within Snapchat’s software because it was the easiest to use. I remade my model and turned it into a snap code. Most people still have it installed on their phone and it’s easy for others to try it out. Through this people can try out the model on their own desk, scale it, rotate it, and place it wherever they wanted.
.png)
Testing
For the testing, I concentrated on letting the user experience the context of the innovation. I tested with three users. I let them work with the snapchat filter to envision how the hologram would look like on their desk and had them interact with it. I made a testplan to describe the objective and formulate hypothesis. I made a test plan. This test is more or less a unit test and within the pc gamer’s private space, the scope is on the hologram. I decided to use this approach in research because it’s kind of difficult to test a hologram, but there are not so many drawbacks to the snapchat filter. Anyone could use it and actually already perceive how it would be in their own space.
.jpg)
Results
A few things emerged from the testing. All of the respondents found the concept to be intriguing.
The thought of using a hologram itself was well accepted. One of my hypothesis was that the hologram for somecould be distracting but the testing gave answer to that.
The hologram wouldn’t be distracting at all and being able to change the model would work too. Since a model that looks like Hannad isn’t exactly the model they’d like to see. Which, of course, is normal but after explaining that the model could be changed there were no issues. I excepted the average pc gamer to be okay with this idea but I assumed the somewhat more extreme user would abstain from the product. But one of the respondents, who is a “hard-core” fps player, was very satisfied with it because during gaming they want something to assist them with their wellbeing. And they thought my innovation came near close to that.
At the end of the project, I created a case movie to demonstrate the functionality and appeal of Medgram.
I made it with Premiere Pro. Making videos is just a hobby of mine but learning more about the eco system of Adobe programs is fun.