Reactions to WiiPaint 2

Last Friday I had my first meeting with my thesis committee after coming back from Wintersession and presented the beginning of WiiPaint 2.  Currently, it looks like bomomo lite (see previous post) and is used with the Wiimote by pressing the B button. Here is a summary of the comments and suggestions.

- Wiimote response is slow right now. The bomomo circles are following a tiny dot that rolls around the screen according to the Wiimote’s accelerometer values. This can be easily fixed by increasing the speed of the dot and circles, and will allow users to make more dramatic gestures.

- We want to see support for bigger gestures and features (visual/aural cues) that encourage the creation of these gestures. What will encourage users to “dance” and make other full-body movements? Brainstorm movement qualities we want to capture, such as waving, dancing, throwing, etc.

- Visual effects similar to the iPhone app Spawn Illuminati’s double-tap fireworks effect. Implement similar effects for certain types of gestures. Encourage users to want to try out different things to explore these effects.

- Music is also a powerful tool if we want to influence users’ interaction with WiiPaint, i.e. soothing music will probably encourage slower movements. At the very least, I have found an instrumental music loop that I can use, but it would be nice if I could find one that can be overlapped over it to create another dimension.

- Create a tighter border so that the Wiimote dot pointer will not seem to stray away from the screen. Add interactivity to the dot, such as bouncing off the border, so that it does not stay at the edge of the screen.

- Add some fun physics metaphors, such as ball simulation, to make idle states more interesting. On a similar note, implement animation such as fading when idle so that users will want to continue using it.

These are some great suggestions and I can’t wait to implement them!