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Designing and evaluating digital games for frail elderly persons

Authors:

Kathrin M. Gerling,

Frank P. Schulte,

Maic MasuchAuthors Info & Claims

ACE '11: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology

Article No.: 62, Pages 1 - 8

https://doi.org/10.1145/2071423.2071501

Published: 08 November 2011 Publication History

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.

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Cited By

Bilius LSchipor OVatavu R(2024)The Age-Reward Perspective: A Systematic Review of Reward Mechanisms in Serious Games for Older PeopleProceedings of the 2024 ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences10.1145/3639701.3656327(168-181)Online publication date: 7-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3639701.3656327
John SYang SMartin-Hammond A(2024)A Case of Designing a Game to Support Older Adults in a Community Setting: Implications for Supporting Active TogethernessHuman Aspects of IT for the Aged Population10.1007/978-3-031-61546-7_13(193-212)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-61546-7_13
Berglund AJaarsma TOrädd HFallström JStrömberg AKlompstra LBerglund E(2023)The Application of a Serious Game Framework to Design and Develop an Exergame for Patients with Heart Failure (Preprint)JMIR Formative Research10.2196/50063Online publication date: 18-Jun-2023
https://doi.org/10.2196/50063
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cover image ACM Other conferences

ACE '11: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology

November 2011

562 pages

ISBN:9781450308274

DOI:10.1145/2071423

General Chairs:
Teresa Romão
FCT/UNL, Portugal
,
Nuno Correia
FCT/UNL, Portugal
,
Masahiko Inami
Keio University, Japan
,
Organizing Chairs:
Eduardo Dias
FCT/UNL, Portugal
,
Teresa Chambel
FC/UL, Portugal
,
Program Chairs:
Hirokasu Kato
Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Japan
,
Rui Prada
Instituto Superior Técnico/UTL and INESC-ID, Portugal
,
Tsutomu Terada
Kobe University, Japan

Copyright © 2011 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 08 November 2011

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ACE '11: International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology

November 8 - 11, 2011

Lisbon, Portugal

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Cited By

Bilius LSchipor OVatavu R(2024)The Age-Reward Perspective: A Systematic Review of Reward Mechanisms in Serious Games for Older PeopleProceedings of the 2024 ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences10.1145/3639701.3656327(168-181)Online publication date: 7-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3639701.3656327
John SYang SMartin-Hammond A(2024)A Case of Designing a Game to Support Older Adults in a Community Setting: Implications for Supporting Active TogethernessHuman Aspects of IT for the Aged Population10.1007/978-3-031-61546-7_13(193-212)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-61546-7_13
Berglund AJaarsma TOrädd HFallström JStrömberg AKlompstra LBerglund E(2023)The Application of a Serious Game Framework to Design and Develop an Exergame for Patients with Heart Failure (Preprint)JMIR Formative Research10.2196/50063Online publication date: 18-Jun-2023
https://doi.org/10.2196/50063
Yuan RZhang SYang XQiu SHan THu J(2023)A Review of Prototyping and Evaluating Approaches for Social Exergames Targeting Older AdultsProceedings of the Eleventh International Symposium of Chinese CHI10.1145/3629606.3629621(146-157)Online publication date: 13-Nov-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3629606.3629621
Bhowmick PStolterman Bergqvist E(2023)Exploring Tangible User Interface Design for Social Connection Among Older Adults: A Preliminary ReviewExtended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544549.3585722(1-9)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3544549.3585722
Lacuesta RGallardo JHernández SPérez Á(2023)Designing Pervasive Games Oriented Towards the Elderly: A Case StudyInformation and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health10.1007/978-3-031-37496-8_13(234-255)Online publication date: 14-Jul-2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37496-8_13
Shibusawa RNakashige MOe K(2022)Duality Board: An Asymmetric Remote Gaming Platform with Mobile Robots and the Digital Twins2022 17th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI)10.1109/HRI53351.2022.9889544(1035-1039)Online publication date: 7-Mar-2022
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Pindeh NKamaruddin ANorowi NRahmat R(2022)Exploring Design Guidelines of Mobile Exergame for Older Adults2022 8th International HCI and UX Conference in Indonesia (CHIuXiD)10.1109/CHIuXiD57244.2022.10009875(71-76)Online publication date: 19-Nov-2022
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Kniestedt ILefter ILukosch SBrazier F(2022)Re-framing engagement for applied games: A conceptual frameworkEntertainment Computing10.1016/j.entcom.2021.10047541(100475)Online publication date: Mar-2022
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Li JLi LHuo PMa CWang LTheng Y(2021)Wii or Kinect? A Pilot Study of the Exergame Effects on Older Adults’ Physical Fitness and Psychological PerceptionInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health10.3390/ijerph18241293918:24(12939)Online publication date: 8-Dec-2021
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