Personalization in Game Design for Healthcare: a Literature Review on its Definitions and Effects

Personalization, the involvement of stakeholders in the design process, is often applied in serious game design for health. It is expected to enhance the alignment of a game to the preferences and capacities of the end-user, thereby increasing the end-user’s motivation to interact with the game, which finally might enhance the aimed-for health effects of the game. However, the nature and effect of personalization have never been systematically studied, making assumptions regarding personalization ungrounded. In this literature review, we firstly provide a proposal of our Personalized Design Process-model, where personalization is defined as stakeholder involvement in the Problem Definition-, Product Design- and/or Tailoring Phase. Secondly, we conducted a systematic literature review on this model, focusing on health and its effects. In this review, 62 of the 2579 found studies were included. Analysis showed that a minority of the studies were of methodologically higher quality and some of these tested the health effect by contrasting tailored versus non-tailored games. Most studies involved stakeholders in the Tailoring Design Phase. Therefore, we conclude that involving stakeholders in the Tailoring Phase is valuable. However, to know if personalization is effective in the Product Design- and the Problem Definition Phase, more studies are needed

Robust anger: Recognition of deteriorated dynamic bodily emotion expressions

In two studies, the robustness of anger recognition of bodily expressions is tested. In the first study, video recordings of an actor expressing four distinct emotions (anger, despair, fear, and joy) were structurally manipulated as to image impairment and body segmentation. The results show that anger recognition is more robust than other emotions to image impairment and to body segmentation. Moreover, the study showed that arms expressing anger were more robustly recognised than arms expressing other emotions. Study 2 added face blurring as a variable to the bodily expressions and showed that it decreased accurate emotion recognition—but more for recognition of joy and despair than for anger and fear. In sum, the paper indicates the robustness of anger recognition in multileveled deteriorated bodily expressions

A cookbook method for Persuasive Game Design

Despite the growing interest in persuasive game design, there have been few methods which cover the complete process of game design that designers could draw upon in their practice. In this paper, the Persuasive Game Design method(PGD) is presented as a non-directive approach for designing persuasive games including a practical hand-out. To better fit with the practical constraints encountered in game design, this method adopts a “cookbook” approach. A set of essential PGD components and tools are provided from which game designers can choose from, given their specific context and resources. Designers first consider the game design steps(“dishes”) to use in creating their game and in each step, select which components(“ingredients”) to take into account and tools(“utensils”) to use. The proposed method, based on our experience as persuasive game researchers and design practitioners, is further refined using feedback from professional game designers. The paper concludes with a case study illustrating how to put the meal into practice. Overall, the method provides a useful contribution to the existing research domain by combining knowledge from game theory, game design and design methodology to create a structured yet flexible approach which covers the complete persuasive game design process for researchers, students and practitioners.

A case study on gamified interventions for team cohesion in factory work

In this article, we aim to provide insights into the design and implementation of game elements for teamwork on the work floor and to study their effect. Inventing games to break monotonous jobs is a long-standing practice, yet conscious implementation of motivational elements of games at work is a recent phenomenon. Generally, gamification is used to enhance individual performance; it may be effective in enhancing teamwork as well. We developed game elements aimed at team cohesion and examined the effect of two gamified interventions (team performance feedback and personal profiles) on team cohesion in a factory. Results suggest that the interventions mainly raised attention toward the aspects of the work that were explicitly addressed. Team performance feedback led to increased task commitment and perceived team performance, while personal profiles increased nonwork-related conversations among team members. We conclude with lessons learned regarding the development and study of gamified interventions for teams on the work floor.peerReviewe

The Design and Application of Game Rewards in Youth Addiction Care

Different types of rewards are applied in persuasive games to encourage play persistence of its users and facilitate the achievement of desired real-world goals, such as behavioral change. Persuasive games have successfully been applied in mental healthcare and may hold potential for different types of patients. However, we question to what extent game-based rewards are suitable in a persuasive game design for a substance dependence therapy context, as people with substance-related disorders show decreased sensitivity to natural rewards, which may result in different responses to commonly applied game rewards compared to people without substance use disorders. In a within-subject experiment with 20 substance dependent and 25 non-dependent participants, we examined whether play persistence and reward evaluation differed between the two groups. Results showed that in contrast to our expectations, substance dependent participants were more motivated by the types of rewards compared to non-substance dependent participants. Participants evaluated monetary rewards more positively than playing for virtual points or social rewards. We conclude this paper with design implications of game-based rewards in persuasive games for mental healthcare

Stable intimacy: design of online communication as a tool to enhance well-being (Intimidad estable: Diseño de comunicación online como herramienta para potenciar el bienestar)

Humans have the innate need to belong and relate to others. Stable relationships are a great influencer of happiness and health and, therefore, should receive stronger attention for their nurture. Online environment is steadily becoming the primary source of relationship formation, however, its instability poses threats to build stable relationships. Since online communication is increasingly used in relationship formation and communication, it holds opportunities for design interventions that support stable relationship creation. This paper introduces a pyramidical laddering approach that guides the building of online communication from the basis of stable creation of intimacy, to satisfying the needs of belonging and relatedness, to ultimately delivering well-being. The approach that was developed through the authors’ prior research aims to deal with the identified main barriers of online communication, distrust and disengagement, and their influence on the formation of stable connections in order to enable healthy intimacy formation in the online environment. This paper brings attention to the importance of romantic relationships on health and highlights opportunities for further research in the thus far under-researched area of design for relation making to support well-being and health of society. El ser humano tiene la necesidad innata de pertenecer y relacionarse con los demás. Las relaciones estables son un gran factor de influencia en la felicidad y la salud y, por lo tanto, deben recibir mayor atención para nutrirlas. El entorno en línea se está convirtiendo rápidamente en la principal fuente de formación de relaciones, sin embargo, su inestabilidad plantea amenazas para construir relaciones estables. Dado que la comunicación en línea se usa cada vez más en la formación de relaciones y la comunicación, ofrece oportunidades para diseñar intervenciones que apoyen la creación de relaciones estables. Este artículo presenta un enfoque escalonado piramidal que guía la construcción de la comunicación en línea desde la base de la creación estable de intimidad, para satisfacer las necesidades de pertenencia y vínculo, y por tanto brindar bienestar. El enfoque que se desarrolló a través de la investigación previa de los autores tiene como objetivo abordar las principales barreras identificadas de la comunicación en línea, la desconfianza y la desconexión, y su influencia en la formación de conexiones estables para promover la formación de una intimidad saludable en el entorno en línea. Este documento se enfoca en la importancia de las relaciones románticas en la salud y destaca las oportunidades para futuras investigaciones acerca del diseño para la creación de relaciones que apoyen el bienestar y la salud de la sociedad, un área hasta ahora poco investigada del diseño. </p