Back in May Microsoft announced the Xbox Adaptive Controller for people with limited mobility. This is a truly incredible piece of hardware to empower those who cannot play games as well with a standard Xbox controller. Microsoft’s efforts to make gaming more accessible to everyone isn’t just stopping on the hardware front, though. Today the company…
Back in May Microsoft announced the Xbox Adaptive Controller for people with limited mobility. This is a truly incredible piece of hardware to empower those who cannot play games as well with a standard Xbox controller. Microsoft’s efforts to make gaming more accessible to everyone isn’t just stopping on the hardware front, though. Today the company revealed just how easy it is to open the box the controller comes in, ensuring that even its packaging is accessible.
Microsoft’s Packaging Design team took extra effort so that players would not need to deal with the usual box opening frustrations; getting out the scissors, ripping it apart with teeth, trying to rip the tape off, fiddling with twist ties.
“The product team was putting so much diligence into getting the controller right that to not have a package that was thoughtfully and mindfully designed for the end user would have felt like a real miss,” said Kevin Marshall, creative director of Microsoft’s Packaging Design Studio.
“With this product in particular, we felt a heightened responsibility. We wanted to create a package that was clearly designed with the end user in mind, and we wanted it to feel like it was just part of our ecosystem,” he said. “We wanted it to be empowering, but we didn’t want it to stand apart from any package we create.”
The company had several gamers with different accessibility needs test out the packaging to see what worked and what didn’t. In the end, these key features are what make the packaging so accessible:
The Xbox Adaptive Controller is up for pre-order on the Microsoft Store for $99.99. It it set to release this fall.
Via: Microsoft, Xbox
