Digging into Game Design for Older Adults - Collaborative User-Centered Game Design with Postsecondary Students

摘要

A collaborative team of game design students, instructors, researchers, and older adults worked together to create educational digital games for older adults. A user-centered design approach was utilized in which the needs, desires, and limitations of the end users were taken into consideration at all stages. Collaboration occurred among researchers, instructors, student-designers, and older adults to create several enjoyable interactive learning games. The current paper examines one of the game development team's process through the nine-month course. The data included team observations, feedback from older adults, and a focus group with the team members at the end of the project. The results suggest that the process of requiring young students in their 20s to design for older adults challenged them to think creatively and expand their understandings.