The challenge

• The PlayStation Access Controller was five years in the making. Designed in collaboration with accessibility organizations and people with disabilities, it offered an unprecedented level of customization — modular button caps, repositionable components, and the ability to pair two controllers together so friends or family could co-pilot a game. The product asked PlayStation's research teams to think differently about what "playtesting" means when your users have fundamentally different physical relationships to a controller.

• Running rigorous, representative research for accessibility hardware isn't straightforward and standard recruitment criteria don't apply, and the bar for what constitutes a "successful" experience is more nuanced than typical UX benchmarks.

What I did

• As UX Researcher, I facilitated playtests, research interviews, and synthesized findings into daily and weekly reports that supported over six first-party development teams. My analyses fed directly into the hardware, software, and UX decisions that shaped the Access Controller's final form.

The result

• The PlayStation Access Controller launched December 6, 2023 and went on to win more than 25 industry awards — including recognition from accessibility advocacy organizations worldwide. It represents one of the most player-centered hardware launches in PlayStation's history, and a project I'm proud to have contributed to.

Press

Engadget / Sony's $90 PS5 accessibility controller arrives on December 6th

Engadget / Sony's 'Project Leonardo' is now the Access Controller