Fede Gonzalez

VR Power TrainerA training simulator for Argentina’s powerchair football team

The VR Power Trainer: a powerchair on a virtual court

Overview

Powerchair football is played in electric wheelchairs. Argentina’s national team found it hard to train: players need constant supervision, the chairs are expensive and many athletes don’t have one at home, and getting everyone to one court means moving them across the country.

With Fundación PCFA, we designed a VR simulator so athletes could train whenever and wherever it suited them.

Role
Experience Design
Director @R/GA
Scope
Concept and
VR prototype
Client
Fundación PCFA
Argentina
Year
2016
Argentina’s powerchair football team at a match, from the project film. Text on screen: this is Argentina’s Powerchair Football team

The game

Four skills to train: position, control, aim and speed.

We took the pillars of the experience from the game itself. Each drill in the simulator works on one or more of them, from moving across the court to scoring a penalty.

Two users

One prototype, two kinds of player.

The prototype had two jobs: test our assumptions with the players, and raise funds to build the full experience. That meant designing for two users.

  • BeginnerInvestors, press and anyone who had never driven a powerchair. They learn basic movement, slalom and dribbling.
  • AdvancedThe athletes. They train penalties across four levels of difficulty.
User flow: splash screen and difficulty levels, then a beginner path with basic movements, slalom and dribbling, and an advanced path with penalties in four levels
Wireframe: choose a level, Beginner or Advanced
Wireframe: penalty drills by skill, static, position and aim

The drills

Short drills against the clock.

Each drill opens with one instruction, then runs on a timer. Attempts, points and the chair’s power stay on screen, and a small map shows where you are on the court.

Wireframe: slalom between two cones, with attempts, points, power and a goal at the bottom
Wireframe: a positioning drill with a countdown inside the target zone
Final design: the first drill asks you to push the joystick forward and drive over the circle on the floor
Final design: the drill running, with the timer, the target circle and the chair’s controls in view

The prototype

Built in VR, tested with the team.

We built a working prototype for VR headsets and tested it with the players, driving a virtual powerchair on a full court.

The prototype in use: driving the powerchair across the virtual court, and players trying it with a VR headset
Testing the prototype with a VR headset

Recognition

  • IxDA AwardsBest in Show, and winner in the Disruption category
  • Clio SportsGold, Digital/Mobile: Virtual/Augmented Reality. Silver, Social Good
  • ADC AwardsSilver Cube, Digital: Interactive / Augmented Reality / Virtual Reality