Serious games and active healthy ageing: a pilot usability testing of existing games

Abstract

In this paper, we report the findings from the pre-studies of gamified solutions in healthcare (GSH) project, which include mapping the existing games for seniors, conducting a pre-test on console games, interviewing elderly, and a literature review on the motivational factors for elderly. The findings showed us the limitations of the existing games and technologies. The literature review gave the useful game design opportunities. The insights from these pre-studies helped us to form the agenda, activities, and plan for our project. According to the proposed activities, we conducted a pilot testing of existing games with elderly and found out that the existing games have potential to be re-used with further modifications in our project. Furthermore, we learned the important lessons from this testing in terms of game design, interaction, and design opportunities. Then, we continue to redesign the existing games and develop new games followed by a usability testing.

Gamified Solutions in Healthcare - Testing Rehabilitation Games in Finland and Asia

“…jump, sit) were unsafe for the elderly. In general, Kinect for the Xbox One was the most effective input device for the elderly yet the scores of the other two devices were not noticeably different [1,9,10].…”

“…The main objectives of this pilot study were: to investigate the usability and usefulness of games for the elderly, to evaluate the usability and usefulness of multimodal input devices (Kinect, PlayMove, web-camera/Xtreme reality) for the elderly, and to understand the general user experiences of elderly in playing games [1,9,10].…”

“…In the SportWall game the player uses particular body postures and gestures to control the roller-skating character in the game [1,9,10].…”

“…We used two video cameras (front and back views) to record the actions and gameplay of the elderly. In addition we carried out questionnaire sessions that were captured by a voice recorder [1,9,10].…”

“…The socialization of the elderly can also be enhanced. The caregiver advised that the games should be simple and easy because of the elderly's limitations in mobility and memory [1,9,10].…”