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Designing for collaboration: a study in intergenerational social game design

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Abstract

This paper presents a study of a computer game designed for the elderly, allowing them to train their memory while playing the game. The game supports both a single-player and a multiplayer mode, in which the elderly can play with their friends or family using an embedded video chat application. The main question that is addressed in this paper is how the elderly gamers’ experience is influenced by the possibility to communicate directly with the other players. The study presents a comparison of the game experience and appreciation of older users and their (grand)children playing the game together, with or without the video chat application. Most importantly, the study shows that the added value of video chat is not limited to social contact, but that it also provides opportunities for the younger generation to assist the elderly during the game. In conclusion, the paper points out some intergenerational game design implications, and some future research suggestions.

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Acknowledgments

TranseCare is a project funded by the Flemish IBBT (Interdisciplinary Institute for Broadband Technology. Project partners in the project consortium are IBCN/INTEC and MIG/RAMIT (UGent), CUO and ICRI (KULeuven), EDM (UHasselt), SMIT (VUB). Industrial partners in the project are Androme, Custodix, In-Ham, Solidariteit voor het Gezin, Televic, UZ Gent and Wit–Gele Kruis. Special thanks go out to the usability design students of KULeuven, for their support in conducting the user tests of the shopping game, to Dr. Karin Slegers, for her valuable comments on this paper, and to Stijn Agten (EDM), for the development of the shopping game.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IBBT-K.U.Leuven Future Health Department, Centre for User Experience Research (CUO), Parkstraat 45/3605, 3000, Leuven, Belgium

    Jan Derboven, Mieke Van Gils & Dirk De Grooff

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  1. Jan Derboven
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  2. Mieke Van Gils
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  3. Dirk De Grooff
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Correspondence to Jan Derboven.

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Derboven, J., Van Gils, M. & De Grooff, D. Designing for collaboration: a study in intergenerational social game design. Univ Access Inf Soc 11, 57–65 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-011-0233-0

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