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Digital Game Design for Elderly People
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Tahmassebi, Shadi |
| Copyright Year | 2018 |
| Abstract | Researchers have found that digital gaming is beneficial for the cognitive, psychological, and physical health of the elderly people [1][6]. The percentage of the elderly people playing digital games is growing increasingly (and so do the demographics) and thus the elderly generation form a potential base for a yet inexperienced game market. Nevertheless, the game industry seems to have ignored this important layer of the population as a special category of users [3]. Neither the hardware nor the software are designed with the elderlies' age-related cognitive and physical impairments. While there is a lot of research on the positive effects of digital games on the elderlies' well-being, the characteristics of the elderly gamers have rarely been explored [1]. The purpose of this study is to find out the elderly people's perceptions and experiences of playing games and map the difficulties they experience. Based on the collected data and facts, a number of important factors to be considered by the designers of games for the elderly people are recommended. Almost 50 individuals between 65 and 90 years of age, living in their homes and enjoying a for their age normal health, have been interviewed by the author. The results reveal that a considerably high majority of the respondents show interest in playing games. Meanwhile, they complain about the complexity of both hardware and software in relation to their age-related cognitive and physical limitations. Most of the elderly individuals say that they need help with both playing games and using the devices. An important conclusion from the findings of this research is that games targeting the elderly users should be designed beyond the general usability issues, considering the possibility of customizing the technologies to individual needs and requirements, as the health and physical conditions of the elderly people vary greatly. The study concludes that for the elderly population to be motivated and benefit from digital games, developers producing the software and hardware, and designers engaged in the design of user interface, need to consider this population as a separate category of gamers and offer games meeting age-related needs and requirements. |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://muep.mau.se/bitstream/handle/2043/25025/Shadi%20Nazem%20Tahmassebi.pdf?isAllowed=y&sequence=1 |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
