One of the most fun projects I’ve ever worked on was Oriboo for Movinto Fun.

Oriboo is a console created for girls and teens intended to encourage movement and dancing. Jin Moen, who came up with the concept wanted to use choreography and dancing and integrating that into a console, and so Oriboo was born.

I came onboard when the platform was constructed but there was still a need for a designer to deal with UX, UI and framework.

The intent with the UI was to be able to set certain options, “talk” to your Oriboo and to play games with it. On 64 x 64 pixels. Extreme simplicity was in order.

It’s been a while, but one of the things we agreed on was making sure that the theme of the Oriboo was consistent. The Oriboo moves on a lead. So does the UI.

There are four main screens in the Oriboo, or rather three and one favorited game. Settings, me, and games. If there a bundled game, that game is the first option.

One of the things we had to make sure to do was to find a typeface that would work on such a small screen. Jin found atomic, which was pretty awesome, all around. I think one of the reasons it works on the Oriboo is because it is super clear, but also because the pixels on the Oriboo are so large. Without that, I doubt the UI would have been readable.

Another aspect of the user experience was that Oriboo is always kind. Oriboo can be worried or sad or wanting attention, but Oriboo is never angry.

All of this work formed the basis of the UI compared to how much we thought about this and worked with it what showed up in the console was very limited. I do believe that all the work we did around tone of voice, attitude and personality for Oriboo paid off though.

By creating a strong framework and basis to begin with, there was never a question around whether Oriboo’s personality and it servers us well when doing other aspects of design such as audio. We never needed Oriboo to sound angry. Curious was enough.

The entire premise was based on the physical promise of Oriboo, a ball on a lead. Any other limitation was only another way to be more creative.