Publication
Investigating Gamification for Seniors Aged 75+
Maximilian Altmeyer; Pascal Lessel; Antonio Krüger
In: Proceedings of the Designing Interactive Systems Conference 2018. ACM Designing Interactive Systems (DIS-2018), June 9-13, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Pages 453-458, ISBN 978-1-4503-5198-0, ACM, New York, NY, USA, 2018.
Abstract
Gamification, the use of game elements in non-game contexts, has been successfully used to motivate people to reach their goals more efficiently or turn unpleasant tasks into fun ones. However, most gamified systems are conceptualized for a younger audience and do not account for age-specific changes in the motivation to play or the perception of game elements. To inform the design of gamified applications targeting elderly people (aged 75+), we investigated their gaming experiences, what affects them positively while playing and their attitudes towards the most commonly used game elements. We report findings from semi-structured interviews and a storyboard-based game element assessment (N=18, mean age=84.61), indicating that the main motivation to play is socializing, that participants avoid competition and prefer collaboration and care-taking as well as that badges and points are considered meaningless and provide a level of visibility that puts participants under pressure.