Investigating the Finnish elderly people’s user experiences in playing digital game-based skiing exercise: A usability study
A. Pyae, T.N. Liukkonen, L. Mika, C. Kattimeri, J. Smed
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AbstractElderly people’s engagement in regular physical exercises is vital in old age. Digital games are promising to promote their engagement in physical exercises. The existing commercial games are not suitable for elderly people. More studies are required to undertake to investigate effective guidelines for designing digital games for elderly people. The main objective of this study is to investigate the Finnish elderly people’s user experiences in playing a digital game-based exercise called ‘The Skiing Game’. Furthermore, we aimed at studying the difference between elderly people’s attitude towards physical and digital game-based exercises. Lastly, we intended to investigate if digital games can be an alternative solution for elderly people to exercise. We conducted a usability evaluation of the game with 21 Finnish elderly participants in Finland. The findings show that the Skiing game is a simple, easy, and user-friendly game for the elderly participants. Their in-game and post-game experiences were moderately positive. Their attitudes towards digital games were moderately negative. However, their attitudes have changed more positively after the gameplay. They also showed their interests in the game, and recommend that digital games can be an effective way of exercising for them. Through participants’ observation, we recommend a number of usability and game guidelines for designing digital games for elderly people. The findings from this study can help researchers and practitioners in the related areas to gain insightful knowledge about adopting and utilizing digital games for promoting elderly people’s physical exercise activities.Keywords: usability, user experiences, physical exercise game, gamification
A. Pyae, T.N. Liukkonen, L. Mika, C. Kattimeri, J. Smed (2017). Investigating the Finnish elderly people’s user experiences in playing digital game-based skiing exercise: A usability study. Gerontechnology, 16(2), 65-80
https://doi.org/10.4017/gt.2017.16.2.002.00