Designing Digital Games with & for Home-dwelling Older Adults' Social Interaction under Sheltering Measures

Abstract

Social relationships and participation have been considered essential elements in contributing to a higher quality of life for older adults. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many home-dwelling older adults have been reported as having less social interaction. Older adults are one of the groups most vulnerable to COVID-19, and they have been heavily impacted by the sheltering measures. Previous studies have shown the potential of digital games in enhancing the social interaction of older adults. However, the research within this field is still at an early stage. Furthermore, games that were designed before the pandemic might no longer be suitable for them due to sheltering measures. Therefore, taking into consideration sheltering measures, in this study we attempt to enhance the social interaction of home-dwelling older adults by designing gaming technologies with and for them. A user-centered design approach was adopted where 10 older adults were involved remotely throughout the study, from gathering user requirements to evaluating prototypes in iterations. The outcomes included an application with three favorite games and a proposed list of design guidelines. The older adults were positive in using the application. Further study is required to evaluate the impacts on social interaction among older adults.