Overweight and obesity pose a serious and increasing problem worldwide. Current treatment methods can result in weight loss in the short term but often fail in the longer term. Increasing motivation and thereby improving adherence can be a key factor in achieving the needed behavioral change. One approach is to address affective state (i.e. to promote positive emotions) by making people aware of their condition in a playful manner, possibly with peer interaction. Serious gaming is envisioned as one way to achieve this. Based on a study of the scientific evidence, the serious game 'Healthy Weight Game!' was designed. The design incorporates most of the features shown to be beneficial in the scientific literature. An evaluation of the design involving a survey of 53 subjects produced positive results. The game was well understood and seen as a good method to help people lose weight and induce positive behavioral change. It was seen as a good addition to own initiatives for being physically active and as a useful addition to dieting and physical therapy. The design of the game (appearance and content) was positively received. Some gender differences were found in reactions to features such as visualization of goal achievements (e.g. avatar getting thinner as exercise goals are reached) and the kind of informative feedback which was appreciated. Overall the game design was rated 7.57/10 over all respondents. We conclude that this design demonstrates potential for improving physical and, indirectly, mental health of people facing overweight and obesity by increasing adherence and promoting sustainable behavioral change. Next steps are to implement the game and conduct a larger scale evaluation.

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Many nursing homes for dementia patients struggle with residents that wander towards the exit with the intention of leaving. Several types of interventions have been used to deal with this issue. Unfortunately, many of them are quite forceful, or are unsuitable for the specific context of certain nursing homes. In this paper, we investigate the possibility to using a more playful persuasive intervention. The design itself is in the form of a lost puppy, equipped with several actuators and sensors, that has to be brought 'home', in order to steer residents unknowingly away from the exit. Our first pilot indicated that residents noticed the puppy and showed interest in the device, and might be distracted from the exit. However, the puppy in its current form did not yet lead the residents away from the exit. Based on our contextual analyses, related work, and received feedback, we share our design insights which could be helpful for creating playful interventions for people with dementia.

Informal caregivers of people with cognitive impairment are often concerned about the health and wellbeing of their loved ones, leading to frequent care-related visits, check-ups, and conversations. Results from focus groups we held in daily care showed a strong need for support in terms of information about the health and wellbeing of the person with cognitive impairment (PwCI). The health monitoring application developed in this study, called HELMA, aims to offer a solution by monitoring the health and wellbeing of the PwCI in the long term and informing the informal caregivers. HELMA is an eHealth application that uses short frequent online monitoring questions to provide informal caregivers with information about the following health and wellbeing domains: physical; mental; social; and environmental. The next step is to evaluate HELMA on a large scale with end-users in daily practice.