Politikk og vitenskap – behovet for flervitenskapelig til- nærming til en politisk håndtering av en pandemi: En samtale med Dag Svanæs 6. november 2020

Dag Svanæs is involved in the Norwegian public debate on how to handle the Corona pandemic. During the last year, he has written articles, participated in many debates and given lectures on the pandemic. He is the initiator of the website Coronakritikk.no, where they document the debate and present scientific knowledge about the pandemic. Svanæs is a professor at the Department of Computer Technology and Informatics at NTNU and studies the interaction between humans and technology. Svanæs received his Ph.D. in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) from NTNU. His research over the last 15 years has been in the fields of HCI and Interaction Design. He has built up a full-scale usability laboratory that allows for simulation of use scenarios with multiple users and multiple devices in realistic settings – primarily for the medical domain. This allows for evaluations and empirical studies of embodied interaction. The basic theory that most inspires his work is the phenomenology of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Martin Heidegger. This was also the topic of his 2000 PhD. This shows Svanæs’ interest in technology, philosophy, health and the ability to have knowledge to predict what could happen in the future.Dag Svanæs har engasjert seg sterkt i den norske offentlige debatten om hvordan vi bør håndtere Coronapandemien. I løpet av året har han vert med på mange kronikker og vært i mange debatter og gjort foredrag om pandemien. Han er initiativtaker til nettstedet Coronakritikk.no, der de dokumenterer debatten og presenterer vitenskapelige kilder om pandemien. Svanæs er professor ved institutt for datateknologi og informatikk ved NTNU og arbeider med interaksjonen mellom menneske og teknologi. I hans doktorarbeid undersøkte han teoriene til Martin Heidegger og Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Fenomenologien får fram hvordan menneske gjør erkjennelser gjennom fysiske handlinger i møtet med teknologi. Han har bygd opp ett fullskala laboratorium for uttesting av teknologi med brukere. Laboratoriet har i all hovedsak blitt brukt innenfor medisin. Dette viser hans interesse både for teknologiske hjelpemiddel, filosofi, helse og evnen til å ha kunnskap om fremtiden. Knut Ove Æsøy er førsteamanuensis i pedagogisk filosofi ved OsloMet. Han har doktorgrad innenfor vitenskapsfilosofi og er opptatt av sammenhengen mellom kunnskaps mangfold og profesjonell praksis

Assessing Motivational Differences Between Young and Older Adults When Playing an Exergame.

Background: Currently, exergames are used by different age groups for both recreational and training/rehabilitation purposes. However, little is known about how to design exergames so that they are motivating for specific age groups and health outcomes. Objective: In this article, we compare motivational factors between healthy young and older adults by analyzing their assessments of the same balance training exergame. Materials and Methods: We performed a laboratory-based assessment of a custom-made balance training exergame with 12 healthy young and 10 healthy older adults. Their answers to a semistructured text input questionnaire were analyzed qualitatively. Results: Both age groups were motivated by a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors. We found that the young adults tended to be motivated by the game challenge and the in-game reward system (scores). In contrast, the older adults were more motivated by the perceived health effects (both physical and cognitive) and the joy of playing, with less regard for the in-game rewards. Conclusion: The differences in motivational factors that were identified between young and older adults have several design implications. For older adults less effort can be put on designing the in-game reward system and more on showing the player the potential health effects of their play. Furthermore, the competition aspect can be downplayed and more focus placed on simply making the gaming experience itself as joyful as possible

Designing for movement quality in exergames: Lessons learned from observing senior citizens playing stepping games

-Background: Exergames are increasingly used as an exercise intervention to reduce fall risk in elderly. However, few exergames have been designed specifically for elderly, and we lack knowledge about the characteristics of the movements elicited by exergames and thereby about their potential to train functions important for fall risk reduction. Objective: This study investigates game elements and older players' movement characteristics during stepping exergames in order to inform exergame design for movement quality in the context of fall preventive exercise. Methods: Fourteen senior citizens (mean age 73 years ± 5.7, range 65 - 85) played 3 stepping exergames in a laboratory. Each of the exergames was described with respect to 7 game elements (physical space, sensing hardware technology, game graphics and sound, model of user, avatar/mapping of movements, game mechanism and game narrative). Five movement characteristics (weight shift; variation in step length, speed, and movement direction; visual independency) were scored on a 5-point Likert scale based on video observations of each player and each game. Disagreement between raters was resolved by agreement. Differences in scores for the 3 exergames were analyzed with a multivariate one-way ANOVA. Results: The Mole received the highest sum score and the best score on each of the 5 movement characteristics (all p values <0.0005). LightRace scored the lowest of the 3 exergames on weight shift and variation in movement direction (both p values <0.0005), while DanceDanceRevolution scored lowest on step length variation and visual independency (p < 0.03 and p < 0.0005, respectively), and lower than The Mole on speed variation (p < 0.05). The physical space players used when exergaming and the on-screen representation of the player, affected movement quality positively as indexed by multiple weight shifts and variation in stepping size, direction, and speed. Furthermore, players' movements improved when playing speed-affected game progression and when the game narrative was related to a natural context. Conclusion: Comparing differences in game elements with associated differences in game movement requirements provides valuable insights about how to design for movement quality in exergames. This provided important lessons for the design of exergames for fall-preventive exercise in senior citizens and illustrates the value of including analyses of movement characteristics when designing such exergames