Wiimote Buttons - A little relocation, a big difference...

One of the taglines of this blog is "The little things that matter." And to demonstrate just how little things can make a big difference, here's gaming guru N'Gai Croal's suggested redesign of the Wii gaming system's remote controller - aka "Wiimote." It simply moves two buttons frequently used in a certain fast-paced, twitchy first-person-shooter game to a place where they can be more comfortably and nimbly reached by the thumb. That's it.

Something this small can be difficult to appreciate (did anyone reading this just shriek "GENIUS!"?), until time is spent actually living with the design. But the impact can be great once that time is spent: the player won't feel the game experience is hindered by poor button placement, and his or her thumbs won't break off at a startlingly young age from repetitive stress injury. All from a couple little buttons, made the slightest bit more pressable.