Research Seminar by Aung PYAE

Investigating the Usability, User Experience and Usefulness of Digital Game-based Physical Exercises for Older People

The population ageing is a global phenomenon (United Nations, 2015). Many countries in the world are facing a challenge of the rapid growth in the number of older people (60+ years) in their population. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), promoting ageing society and ageing well is a global priority. Enhancing the quality of life for older people is important for society. Among different factors that can have an influence on an active lifestyle for older people, physical well-being and independence play an important role. However, older people experience natural age-related changes, including physical and functional decline that can have a negative impact on their quality of life. People (e.g. healthcare professionals) use modern technologies (e.g. robots) to promote older people’s physical well-being and their engagement in physical exercises. Of these different technologies, digital games are promising to enhance older people’s user experiences in doing physical exercise activities.

Although commercial games available in the market (e.g. Nintendo Wii and Microsoft Xbox Kinect games) have the potential for older people’s physical activities, they are not designed for them, as well as not age-friendly (e.g. graphics and game contents). To be able to produce effective games for older people, it is important to understand their user experiences as well as the usability of digital games and interaction devices to play games. In this study, we aim at understanding the usability of digital game-based physical exercises for older people and their user experiences in the gameplay. In addition, we are interested in investigating the usefulness of digital games for older people as an alternative solution to exercise. We designed and developed a digital game-based exercise called the Skiing Game, and evaluated it with 21 Finnish and 24 Japanese older participants in Finland and Japan respectively. We used both qualitative (e.g. interview and observation) and quantitative (e.g. questionnaire) to collect participants' feedback towards the game. The findings show that digital game-based exercises are useful for older people to improve their physical exercise activities, and their user experiences in the gameplay are moderately positive. We also identified the usability issues encountered by the older participants in the usability studies. Then, we propose usability recommendations for designing digital game-based exercises for older people. The findings from this study can be helpful and insightful for usability and HCI practitioners, as well as healthcare professionals who are interested in adopting the game-based approach to enhance older people's experiences in doing physical exercises.

 

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