Lessons Learned from Two Usability Studies of Digital Skiing Game with Elderly People in Finland and Japan

Physical decline is associated with old age. Engagement in regular physical exercises can help elderly people improve their physical functionalities, as well as cognitive abilities. Among modern technologies, digital games have the potential to promote elderly people’s engagement in physical exercises through fun and enjoyable gameplay. Although commercial digital games show promise, most of them are not designed for elderly people. The literature also suggests that more studies need to be undertaken to understand the usability and usefulness of digital games for elderly people. Hence, in this study, we designed and developed a digital game-based Skiing activity for elderly people. Then, we evaluated it with the Finnish and Japanese elderly participants in Finland and Japan to investigate their feedback towards the usability and usefulness of the game. The findings from both studies show that digital games are useful for promoting elderly people’s engagement in physical activities. While digital games are promising to be used as an alternative solution for promoting the Japanese elderly participant’s physical activities, the Finnish elderly participants recommend to use it when they don’t have access to non-digital physical exercises. The lessons learned from this study can help researchers and practitioners gain insights into game design and development for elderly people and their physical activities.</p

The Use of digital games to enhance the physical exercise activity of the elderly : a case of Finland

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), population ageing is a global phenomenon, which brings both challenges and opportunities for society. The current longer expected lifespan can create opportunities for the elderly to contribute in many ways to their families and communities. However, it greatly depends on their quality of life, which is affected by many factors, including physical and functional health, social well-being, and cognitive abilities. The WHO (2012) states that physical health is one of the indicators for the elderly’s quality of life, and it declines with increasing age. Participation in regular physical exercises can help the elderly improve their physical and mental health, and this has been aided by the use of modern technologies to promote the elderly’s physical and functional health. Of these latest technologies, digital games have shown promise to improve and enhance the elderly’s physical activities through fun and engaging gameplay. The literature highlights that some commercial games in the market (e.g. Microsoft Kinect- Sports and Nintendo Wii Sports games) have the potential to improve the elderly’s physical health such as gait, balance, and fall prevention. However, researchers argue that these commercial games are not designed specifically for the elderly and their physical exercise activities. They state that most commercial games are not user-friendly for the elderly whose functional and physical abilities are limited due to their advanced years. The literature points out that more studies need to be undertaken to understand the usability and usefulness of digital games for physical exercise activities so that game designers can create elderly-friendly digital games in the future. In Finland, the government has been focusing on promoting healthy ageing and increasing home care services for the elderly. In recent years, Finnish researchers have used digital games to promote older Finns’ healthy and active ageing. The existing literature, whilst showing the potential of digital games for elderly Finns’ physical health, also acknowledges further research is needed particularly in the context of Finland. Thus, in this study, we aimed at investigating digital games to specifically assess their applications for older Finns’ physical activities, focusing on the quality of users’ experiences, and their reported ease of use and perceived usefulness. We used the mixed methods approach, which applies both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The study design included four stages: requirements gathering, analysis and design, prototyping, and evaluation. Firstly, we conducted pre-studies to elicit users’ requirements. This was followed by the analysis of the resulting data to identify trends and patterns, which fuelled ideas in the brainstorming game design and development phases. The final product was a digital game-based physical exercise called the Skiing Game. We then evaluated the Skiing Game in Finland with 21 elderly Finns (M=7, F=14, Average Age =76). By using questionnaires, observation, and interviews, we investigated user experiences, focusing on the game’s usability, and usefulness for enhancing the physical activity and wellbeing of the elderly. We also conducted a comparative test of the Skiing Game in Japan with 24 elderly Japanese participants (M=12, F=12, Average Age = 72) to further understand non-Finnish elderly users’ experiences. The findings from the usability study of the Skiing Game in Finland demonstrated that elderly Finns had a positive experience in the gameplay, and their motivation was noticeably high. It also confirmed that elderly Finns have a genuine interest in digital game-based exercises and strong intentions to play digital games as a form of physical exercise in the future. Although prior to the study most of them had negative views and misconceptions about digital games, after the gameplay their attitudes were decidedly positive. They acknowledged that whilst playing digital games could be an alternative way of exercising for them their use would primarily be when they don’t have access to their usual non-digital physical exercise. The Japanese usability of the Skiing Game showed that the elderly Japanese people also had positive user experiences in playing digital games, and also intend to use them in the future. Similarly, after playing the game they reported that their attitudes towards digital games become positive, and indicated playing digital games could be an alternative way of exercising. Although the comparison of the two studies suggests that the elderly Finns had relatively more positive experiences whilst playing the Skiing Game, compared to their Japanese counterparts, in general, both groups had a positive experience in the gameplay and showed interest in digital games as an alternative exercise. Based on the usability lessons learned from these two studies, recommendations for practitioners and designers regarding improvements in game design and development are made in this report. Implementing these modifications into future designs and further development of digital games for the elderly will improve their commercial viability and user uptake. The findings from this study can provide valuable insights, particularly for Finnish policymakers and healthcare practitioners who are keen to introduce digital games into the aged-care sector in Finland. The studies have also provided valuable insights into the optimal methods for introducing Finnish digital games to international markets, in particular, digital games tailored specifically for the physical exercise needs and motivations of the elderly. By taking into consideration the limitations of the study, we provide our future studies and further improvements of the game to be conducted

Lessons Learned from the Gamified Solutions in Healthcare Project: Usability Studies of Digital Game-based Physical Exercises for Elderly People

In this paper, we discuss usability lessons in designing physical activity games for the elderly. Physical activity games in this study refer to game-based activity that can enhance the elderly’s experiences in doing physical exercise and improve their physical well-being. We learned these usability lessons through the usability testing of different physical activity games including commercial games as well as the games produced by the Gamified Solutions in Healthcare (GSH) project. The discussion is based on the findings from the observational study, interview, and questionnaires in the usability testing. These usability lessons are insightful and useful for our future game design and development as well as for researchers working on game usability for the elderly.</p

User experience of mixed reality applications for healthy ageing : A systematic review

Mixed reality (MR) technologies are being used increasingly to support healthy ageing, but past reviews have concentrated on the efficacy of the technology. This systematic review provides a synthesis of recent experimental studies on the instrumental, emotional and non-instrumental aspects of user experience of healthy older adults in relation to MR-related applications. The review was listed on PROSPERO, utilised a modified PICOS framework, and canvassed all published work between January 2010 to July 2021 that appeared in major databases (Scopus, PubMed, CINAHL, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library). The literature search revealed 15 eligible studies. Results indicated that all included studies measured the instrumental quality of their applications, all but two studies measured the emotional reactions triggered by gameplay, and only six studies examined participants’ perception of non-instrumental quality of the applications. All included studies focused on improving a health domain such as cognitive or physical training. This suggests that the instrumental quality of the MR applications remains the focus of user experience studies, with far fewer studies examining the non-instrumental quality of the applications. Implications for game design and future research are discussed

Place, recreation and local development

Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Monitoring and Management of Visitors in Recreational and Protected Areas (MMV9), Bordeaux, FRA, 29-/08/2018 - 31/08/2018It is our pleasure to welcome you to the 9th international Conference on Monitoring and Management of Visitors in Recreational and Protected Areas (MMV9) with a program including keynote speeches, organized and poster sessions, a half-day field trip, social events and post conference trips. This is the first time that France has hosted an MMV Conference. Our country is ranked as the world's top tourist destination, thanks largely to its culture, art, and gastronomy, as well as popular cities such as Paris and Bordeaux. On the other hand, France's potential as a destination for outdoor recreation and nature-based tourism is not hugely publicized, despite its many unique features in this respect: varied climate and natural assets (shoreline, mountains, lakes, and forests), large expanses of countryside, and a network of protected natural areas, to name but a few. France's protected areas are often free to access for the general public. However, in contrast with other countries, nature conservation in specific areas is much less widespread. Where it does take place, it is often centered on territories that are perceived to be "attractive", and where many conflicting activities are practiced. This may be one of the reasons why contractual tools and regional park systems are quite popular in France. The MMV Conference offers an excellent opportunity to discuss the situation in France in greater depth. The theme proposed for the conference was "recreation, place and local development". This reflects our assumption that recreational areas are not just physical assets designed to receive visitors for the purpose of leisure - which in itself would already be something of great importance - but that they reflect deeper social phenomena, as demonstrated through the range of organized sessions dedicated to discussing questions such as environmental education and economic development, but also emerging themes such as social integration, community resilience, environmental justice, and health. The traditional topics covered by MMV Conference reflect an evolving society: with innovations in monitoring techniques (both on people and nature), focus on new populations (Y generation, ethnic minority) and a larger concern for individual engagement and participative management. The 9th Edition of MMV is co-hosted by Irstea and BSA. This would not have been possible without significant contributions from a large number of additional partners and sponsors as well as our national scientific and organizing committee. We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their help. After two years of planning, we are proud to announce that we have more than 160 presentations from 30 countries, meaning that the conference will host over 200 participants from across the globe. We are honored that the International Steering Committee has given us the opportunity to be part of this great MMV community, which organized its first meeting in 2002. We hope you will enjoy the conference as much as we enjoyed organizing it. If you can't be with us in person, we hope that you will enjoy reading our publications

Scoping the Potential Use of Serious Games for Public Engagement with Tree and Plant Health

After the devastating introduction of Chalara ash dieback into Great Britain in 2012, all devolved GB governments agreed on the need for increased public engagement in protecting tree and plant health. Serious games have been proposed as a tool for achieving this. This thesis explores two questions. Firstly, to what extent is there an appetite for using Serious Games among plant health professionals and the general public? Furthermore, when compared to traditional methods of presenting information in public engagement, can Serious Games improve participant engagement and retention of information? To address the first question, we conducted two studies of attitudes to Serious Games. In the first study, we conducted face-to-face structured interviews of tree and plant health professionals. In this group, we found that there was interest in the potential use of Serious Games; however, a lack of game development skills emerged as a challenge. In the second study, we used an online survey aimed at the general public to ask about attitudes, preferences, and experiences with Serious Games. Again, we found that there was an interest in the use of games with some reservations. In addressing the second question, two experiments were conducted comparing game and non-game methods of presenting identical information to participants. These experiments measured enjoyment and retention of information. In both experiments, the non-game treatment participants had higher quiz results, suggesting that the Serious Game treatment did not improve information retention. This may be because the learning content was not sufficiently related to the games. Additionally, despite Game players reporting a higher perceived level of learning in the second experiment this did not translate to longer term retention of information. We conclude that Serious Games can be useful in arousing interest; however, careful design is needed if they are to promote, rather than distract from, learning

Snow design from Lapland : initiating cooperation

acceptedVersio