One goes through a myriad of emotions when playing games. More often than not however frustration seems to be the dominant one. An industrial designer is more than likely to deduce as much. In the fall of 2003, Kathryn Elliot was asked to pick up a product, analyze the intricacies of color(s) involved and then redesign it based on a dominant emotion associated with the product. So once she chose Nintendo’s GameCube, it was pretty much clear as to what emotion she was going to depict. And what name did she give to the redesigned GameCube showing frustration? Well, a no brainer really! The Frustration Game Cube, what else! Frube is but a pet name of the same. Designed to aggravate, portray and maybe even relieve a game player’s frustration, Frube has many changes incorporated.
First the aggravation bit. To introduce an element of frustration in the color scheme of the gaming device itself, Kathryn colored her GameCube purple and yellow; aggressive colors that rarely match a household’s color scheme. The shape of Frube further worsens irritation as from the original cube it has been squished into a parallelogram that won’t sit on a shelf easily. The other design changes are asymmetrical position of front plug-in panel (making it difficult to judge which side should face the player) and a jagged cut lid (making it difficult to judge which side opens and how).
Weird labeling further worsens players’ mental state. Incorrect order of controller plug-ins, frustrated faces painted on the buttons, a “Give Up” label on power button (asking players to quit before even starting), a “Start Over” label on reset button (which is by the way hidden), all make life hellish for any player. The final design element to display frustration is a placement of fans on the corners so that no matter what side the machine faces, little drafts of hot air always blow right at a player’s face.
Getting through a game on this redesigned GameCube would be by no means an easy ride. Frube will tease you all the while you idle away your time. Surely this one won’t make into an actual design option. If it does then don’t be surprised if lots of consoles get broken real quick.
