Electronic Product Design of Home Entertainment Systems

This study was undertaken to determine what makes people buy the consoles they do, with particular reference to gender, and the technology and networking facilities they provide. It looks at the evolution of Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo over the past decade to establish how their console designs have developed, and what their latest 7th generation models have to offer in contrast to their competitor's offers. Research has been gathered from books and from the internet to help show what the current problems are with consoles that have not been designed for gender equality, and the advantages to those that have (with relation to technology and networking). 32 people were questioned about the console they own and why they own it. Results showed that 75% of PS3 owners were male, and that 100% of Xbox 360s were male. The latter is due to the advanced gaming the Xbox 360 has to offer. 75% of females owned a Nintendo Wii; this could be due to the gesture-based controller that it offers. The Wii enables users to interact with the console more easily means inexperienced gamers can play on an entertainment system with family members or friends.

Autorentext

Tom Page PhD is a lecturer in Electronic Product Design at the Loughborough Design school. His research work has been widely published in leading journal papers and books and to date he has over 400 publications.