PS2 joypad usability and accessibility: some thoughts_ (part I)

Intro

Reading on idearium about the topic of usable videogames (read Teresa Colombi's article: UNUSABLE GAMES: la giocabilità come nuovo campo di intervento dell'ergonomia) I had a couple of ideas. They are concerning not only usability , but also accessibility issues for people with different abilitites. I'm talking not only about people with disabilities, but more widely of people who just have different approaches to media interaction compared to the average person.

I will focus this essay on input devices, specifically on the DUALSHOCK ® 2 analog controller for Sony Playstation 2 [img.01], what videogamers usually call pad or joypad, and on human-videogame interaction via this kind of device .

Functionalities in detail

This version of the pad for the Sony videogame console is provided with the following functionalities [img.02]:

• D-Pad (digital movement pad)
• 4 analog action buttons: circle, cross, square, triangle
• 2 front side action buttons, 2 per side Left upper (L1), Left lower (L2), Right upper (R1), Right lower (R2)
• 3 selections buttons: start button, select button, analog mode switch button

D-Pad

The D-Pad (wich I guees stands for Digital Pad) is the digital directional control for the joypad, it allows to move the subject of the action in a videogame in 4 different directions: up, down, left and right. It's made of four convex buttons in the shape of a strecthced out arrow head. Each arrow end has a sunken arrow on the pad's body.

The buttons on the D-PAD operate in binary mode (on/off), that means the directional buttons may just perceive the pressed/unpressed state. Possible directions are therefore up/down/left/right

Action Buttons

These are the standard Playstation 4 buttons (SQUARE TRIANGLE CIRCLE X), each of them with its own means in the games. They operate both in digital as well as in analog (when the analog switch button has been pressed).

When in analog mode, the buttons register both duration and amount of pressure. Their sensitivity operate within a 256 levels scale.

Left and Right Front Action buttons

There are 2 of these buttons in the frontal side of the pad, there are 2 on the left and 2 on the right, they are usually reffered as L1 (upper left), L2 (lower left), R1 (upper right) and R2 (lower right). They operate both in digital as well as in analog (when the analog switch button has been pressed).

When in analog mode, the buttons register both duration and amount of pressure. Their sensitivity operate within a 256 levels scale.

Analog Sticks

These two sticks operate in analog mode only and are responsible for separate functions: where the left stick usually substitute the D-Pad functions, the right one take different duties depending on the game you are playing (eg. in Prinece of Persia it operates the camera view). Their sensitivity operate within a 256 levels scale. [img. 3]

Start button

This button, as you may guess, has the duty of starting a game. If used during a game, it usually pause the game and access an option menu. This button is convex. [img. 4]

Select button

This buttton operate as a kind of mouse right-click, contextual to the main function activated. This button is convex. [img. 4]

Analog switch button

This button lets you choose between the digital or analog setting, when pressed the Analog Sticks become active. This button is sunken in the pad's body. [img. 4]

Analog led

Red lighted when analog mode is one. The led is sunken in the pad's body. [img. 4]

No remarks, but a small one

There are no big remarks with this pad, in the whole it works just fine, player hands are comfortable enough to play for long periods of time. The select and start buttons are well done, I like the choice to differentiate them, with the start button shaped as the play buttons of your VCR or your stereo. This means that even if you can't read the small labels under them (or if they've been erased by your sweat), you'll be able to know what you are pressing by its shape.

Well, if I can say anything at all, I'm not very happy with the analog switch button, I understand the issue of not pressing it for error, but the fact that is sunken in the body of the pad it's not very usable. It's difficult to press, you have to work with your fingernail. Now, not everybody has his fingernails.

My personal suggestion is, move it on the back of the pad, in the center. Not a sunken button, better if an old-style trigger with an on/off mode.

The gamer-pad-videogame issue

This is where some improvements can be made.