Designing and evaluating digital games for frail elderly persons

Abstract

Game research increasingly addresses human factors of gaming. Though more and more seniors become players, game design for frail elderly has rarely been explored. This paper addresses game design for senior citizens experiencing age-related changes, especially cognitive and physical limitations. We introduce and evaluate the case study SilverPromenade, which is specifically aimed at providing institutionalized frail elderly with a new leisure activity. SilverPromenade allows players to go on virtual walks while accounting for special needs regarding game complexity, and simplistic interaction paradigms are provided using Nintendo's Wii Remote and the Balance Board for game control. Evaluation results suggest that despite age-related impairments, the game was generally accessible to elderly persons. Yet, differences between inexperienced and experienced players were observed which suggest that interaction problems may be reduced by engaging with games over a longer time. Findings also indicate that the engagement of elderly players transcends into their everyday life, and their social interaction increases among one another. Most importantly, the evaluation showed that games were perceived as enjoyable leisure activity, supporting the approach of applying digital games to raise the quality of life among frail elderly by fostering activity.

Custom-designed motion-based games for older adults: A review of literature in human-computer interaction

“…Age Invaders 26 , a mixed-reality version of the traditional Space Invaders game in which aliens are invading Earth and have to be shot, tries to engage multiple generations (children, parents and grandparents) in play and requires some degree of physical activity as players are expected to move around on the playfield. The case study SilverPromenade by Gerling et al 7 builds on insights gained through the implementation and evaluation 27 of the research tool SilverBalance, which was designed to explore the use of footbased user input in exergames for senior citizens. Results of an evaluation including qualitative and quantitative measures that compares SilverBalance to Wii Fit balance games show that while Wii Fit is accessible to healthy older adults, SilverBalance also allows institutionalized older adults to participate in play.…”

“…Research has frequently highlighted the potential of motion-based video games for this audience, but also pointed out that video games need to be designed with senior audiences in mind 6 : It has been shown that older adults enjoy playing video games 7,8 and it has been demonstrated in different studies that motion-based games have positive effects on the emotional 9 , cognitive 10 , and physical 11 well-being of older adults. However, concerns regarding the usability and accessibility of motion-based applications for older adults have been brought up by a range of studies 12 , and most work focusing on the design of motionbased interactive technologies has addressed the creation of sports-like experiences to help fight sedentary lifestyles among younger audiences.…”

Mobile Healthcare Applications and Gamification for Sustained Health Maintenance

“…Gamification of mHealth is one way of motivating healthy people to use the application, as the gaming factor could motivate people who are not in bad condition or are healthy to engage in healthy behavior [5]. Gamification is a process of using 'gaming' elements to motivate and engage people in non-gaming contexts [6].…”

Processes and Models for Serious Game Design and Development

“…For example, in a study after game design for the elderly, the GEQ was combined with qualitative observations [65]. Adaptations to make the GEQ suitable for serious games are being researched, but have thus far concluded that the variation in context of playing had large impact on the results obtained, finding that the various design stages did improve usability but not gameplay experience [66].…”