Designing an American Ninja Warrior Obstacle with Vague Requirements
“In recent years, ANW has invited fans and contestants to submit designs of new obstacles as part of a competition. I decided to submit my own design this year. Since the ANW website didn’t provide a lot of direction about designing a good obstacle, I had to generate my own.”
Designing an American Ninja Warrior Obstacle with Vague Requirements
My wife and children have become obsessed with the show “American Ninja Warrior” during the most recent season. American Ninja Warrior (ANW) challenges top athletes in a series of obstacles called stages. Each stage is comprised of usually five or six obstacles that test the strength, agility, and focus of the competing ninjas. Some common obstacles are the Warped Wall, Jumping Spider, and the Salmon ladder (my family’s favorite for obvious reasons). They must complete these obstacles in an allotted time, or faster than all the other competitors, and if successful, can win large cash prizes.
In recent years, ANW has invited fans and contestants to submit designs of new obstacles as part of a competition. I decided to submit my own design this year. Since the ANW website didn’t provide a lot of direction about designing a good obstacle, I had to generate my own. There was lots of small print and legalese as part of the competition rules, but they left the definition of the attributes and requirements for a winning obstacle completely to the designer – me. You may have been in a similar situation where an open-ended project was given to you by a supervisor, a professor, or even a family member. In those situations, a good practice is to reflect on what would make a good design for your particular problem and derive your own requirements. If not, how will you evaluate your progress as you work toward a final design?
I found myself in this situation. Instead of a formal theoretical discussion of deriving requirements from a vague problem statement, I’ve chosen to demonstrate this process by sharing with you five of the most important requirements I developed for an ANW obstacle. These requirements seemed to be nonnegotiable despite their absence on any website I could find. As I continued through the various stages of design, I kept these requirements in mind. I returned to them time and time again, even if just mentally, to make sure I was focused on what I considered the target. Thus, the initially vague requirements for a ANW obstacle became well defined:
Safety: A safe design has to be the number one requirement for any obstacle. I’ve seen some nasty accidents throughout the ANW seasons and although I’m positive waivers are signed removing liability for the show’s producers, everyone still takes safety very seriously. For example, most obstacles are above a pool of water so that if the contestants fall the risk of injury is minimized. Padding is also found extensively around many obstacles and various exits points are available throughout a stage. The most dangerous obstacles seem to be the ones where the contestant can be hit by something after falling. To avoid this, obstacles with moving bars tend to be connected to cables. Regardless, an ANW obstacle must be safe. It would be a literal “show-stopper” if they weren’t.
Physically and Mentally Challenging: It goes without saying that the obstacle has to be challenging physically, but it should also test the mental or problem solving abilities of the contestant as well. Thus, a good obstacle shouldn’t be intrinsically obvious on how to achieve it without thought and without much physical preparation. There should be room for multiple ways or at least techniques to successfully pass an obstacle. Furthermore, good timing, proper trajectory angles, pacing, center of mass control, and even conserving strength appropriately are just some of the mental elements that should be incorporated in any good obstacle.
Unique: A good ANW obstacle should also be original. Most of the contestants train for months at local gyms or in their own backyard on obstacles that look very similar. But, during the competition, the ANW obstacles should be fresh, exciting, and riveting to the point where it’s a badge of honor just to try out the obstacle on TV because it doesn’t exist in any gym in any part of the world. The show’s budget likely allows the freedom to have different types of obstacles that are impossible in other settings (i.e. when was the last time you saw an obstacle course above your local pool?). I hope that this unique design space for ANW obstacles is leveraged even more in the future. No other playground has the potential to be this innovative.
Branding: Can you think of a good product that doesn’t have a good name? Sure, they’re out there, but you can’t think of the name, can you? The branding itself is often a big driver for adoption like so many products on the market. Without the supportive marketing strategies, the best products can flounder for years or even forever. There are ANW obstacles that have such a catchy name that viewers can envision the obstacle from the name itself (e.g. Coconut Climb or Monkey Peg); there is just enough specificity to hint at both the function and form in the name itself.
Real Probability of Failure (and Success): An obstacle that everyone can pass is super boring (They might as well skip it). An obstacle that no one can pass is equally boring (They might as well skip it too!). But an obstacle that only some contestants can pass the first time and others can pass after one or two failed attempts is absolutely captivating. This same requirement is found in lots of different designs and even in aspects of our lives. Even our vocations are boring or debilitating if there is no chance of failing (or of always failing). Would you play a video game at length if it was impossible to win? Would you play it if you never lost? Interestingly, compelling designs have an analogous property.
If you are familiar with this show, you may be able to identify other requirements that are just as important. I had a few more but these five were absolutely critical. The important message is that I returned time and again to my list of requirements to check my progress before submitting my design to the competition. Without someone or something providing them to me and following up continually, I had to have significant discipline to keep them fixed and uncompromising. Well, I hope my design is a winner. Fingers crossed.
