077 Simulation Exercises

Deep approximations of human or environmental conditions

• Effective simulations forge a tangible, immersive sense of real-life user experience to influence design sensitivity and decisions.

• Simulated real-world conditions can provide empathic emotional experiences or test functional interactions like response time and decision-making.

• These exercises have been used in military, aircraft and NASA training, driving simulators, and virtual worlds.

• In design, exercises might approximate the limitations experienced by people with physical disabilities, brain injuries, or age-related sense and cognition deficits.

• Low-tech simulations can utilize wheelchairs, manipulated glasses lenses, or blindfolds to empathically experience restricted mobility or visual impairment.

• Designers are involved in the creation of simulated environments such as video games, virtual or augmented reality, physical spaces, and artifacts.

See also   Bodystorming • Experience Prototyping • Role-Playing

Courtesy of Nathan Fried-Lipski / MIT AgeLab

Researchers perform tasks wearing the “Age Gain Now Empathy System” (AGNES), developed in the MIT AgeLab to simulate the dexterity, mobility, strength, and balance of a 74-year-old.