The Wired article released today has some amazing insight in how much research went into designing the Series X
“Eventually we get to the point where we have to make a decision. These will generally all work . . . we know they’ll cost about the same. But what we really wanna know is whether this is exciting and interesting to customers,” says Kujawski. So small teams of designers and user researchers took these models into customers’ homes in L.A., New York, and Chicago.
“We’d line up 10-12 in home visits. We talk about gaming in general, how they use their console, high-level stuff . . . then we always took measurements of their room, how far they sat from the TV, and temperature readings for a thermal study,” says Kujawski. “Then we’d unveil these crude boxes . . . without much context other than, if this were the shape of the next-gen console, what do you think?”
The tower won. Not just because its monolithic design was visually compelling, but because of proportions that are more practical than you might expect. It’s a big box in your hands, yes, akin to the size of a commercial toaster. But because it’s not extreme in any one dimension, it can fit on a shelf that’s a mere 8-inches deep."
