Butter It! - A collocated game

Paper i proceeding, 2015

Most apps for mobile devices are designed to be used in isolation. Even apps for communication, like chat or social networks, still isolate users from others who are physically present in the same room. We designed and programmed Butter It!, a multiplayer game for iOS that encourages people to interact with collocated individuals via their mobile phones. Players race to butter the most pieces of toast on their phones, while an iPad serves as the virtual stick of butter that players scoop. Players enjoyed the competition and would interact with each other in ways we had not imagined, like physically pushing each other to impede each other's progress, and future versions of this app would further encourage this type of local interaction.