The crank generator in our storyboard is spun by players to charges up a message on the display directly above it that will tell another player the instructions of what to press on a button panel across the room. From the looks-like model, we wanted to answer questions about form factor. Does it fit the theme? What size does it need to be? We also used the looks-like model as a plays-like model to test the interaction the player has with it to see whether or not it is an interesting interaction.
To match the theme of a post-apocalyptic power plant, the outside of the crank generator was painted silver with specks of brown and orange to make it look rusty. The model was made at half scale, but from testing, we found that it could be even bigger, and a possibility would be to make it comically large. People really liked the physical interaction, it was clear what they had to do from seeing the crank and liked that it was squeaky (a happy accideny) since it fit the theme more.
The display that accompanies the crank was simulated by printed out pieces of paper like the one on the left. The font and background were chosen to resemble that of a digital display. These sheets of paper were used with a game cube controller to test the whole interaction. When the user rotated the crank, someone would hold up the display with instructions. If they stopped cranking, the display would go away. Their partner would be on the other side holding the controller and when they pressed the correct buttons, the next message would be held up as long as the first person was still cranking.
From this testing, we found that people did understand the interaction. They understood that cranking powered the message and that the message corresponded to the button panel. They again liked the tactile interaction, but thought this could be made more difficult to involve more people. Possible ways of doing this are by making multiple wheels or makng the button panel larger and more complicated so that one person can't reach all the things they have to do at once.
