Digging into Game Design for Older Adults
Collaborative User-Centered Game Design with Postsecondary Students
Simone Hausknecht, Fan Zhang, Julija Jeremic, Hollis Owens and David Kaufman
Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada
Keywords: Game Design, Older Adults, User-Centered Design, Collaborative Learning.
Abstract: 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.
1 INTRODUCTION
Seniors (60+) are the fastest growing population in
almost every country in the world, with estimates of
this demographic doubling by 2050 (WHO, 2015). In
Canada, there are almost 5.8 million seniors, and it is
predicted that there will be an increase from 16.1% of
the population to 20.1% by 2024 (Statistics Canada,
2015). For the first time in history the number of older
adults in Canada has surpassed those between the
ages of 0-14 (Statistics Canada, 2015). This has been
an ongoing trend among many countries in the world
and has led to an increase of research on ageing. The
sudden growth of an ageing society may impact
institutions, work places, culture, and society
(McDaniel and Rozanova, 2011). Technology has
been increasingly examined as a tool that may help
maintain the quality of life of older adults. Of the
technologies, digital games can play an important role
in providing the motivation and excitement that allow
older adults to pursue areas to improve social well-
being, life-long learning, digital literacy, and
intergenerational connections (Astell, 2013).
Over the past five years, older adults have become
the fastest growing gaming demographic. In 2015,
over a quarter of gamers (27%) were over the age of
50 (ESA, 2015). Furthermore, the number of female
gamers aged 50 and older increased by 32% from
2012 to 2013 (ESA, 2014). Older adult gamers are
mainly casual gamers (66%), who prefer puzzle
games, card, arcade or word games (De Schutter,
2011, ESA, 2016). De Schutter (2011) found that
80% of the older adult gamers surveyed in their study
were casual gamers, the other 20% had a wide range
of game preference.
Previous studies found that older adults enjoy a
variety of benefits from digital games including fun,
social connections to others, and cognitive challenge
(De Schutter, 2011; Gamberini et al., 2009;
Hausknecht, 2013; Schell et al., 2016). For example,
a study conducted by Schell et al., (2016) found older
adults increased their social connectedness and
reduced loneliness levels during an eight week Wii
Bowling tournament. However, this was not without
some constraints. Other studies have noted that the
elderly, particularly those with an impairment may
struggle with games (IJsselsteijn et al., 2007; Gerling
et al., 2011). To address specific needs and interests
of older adult gamers, some researchers have started
to design games aimed at older adults. Such as the
project Eldergames, where a tabletop game designed
for cognitive preservation was implemented
(Gamberini et al., 2009). Gerling et al., (2011) also
created the game SilverPromenade which was
designed for frail elderly. In this study, they used a
participatory design incorporating older adults in a
care home into the process and attempting to adjust
for the specific limitations that arose.
200
Hausknecht, S., Zhang, F., Jeremic, J., Owens, H. and Kaufman, D.
Digging into Game Design for Older Adults - Collaborative User-Centered Game Design with Postsecondary Students.
DOI: 10.5220/0006319102000207
In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU 2017) - Volume 2, pages 200-207
ISBN: 978-989-758-240-0
Copyright © 2017 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

Although older adult gamers make up a quarter of the
gaming population, they are often a neglected target
demographic group. The game design industry has
rarely targeted this population. A further difficulty is
that intergenerational interactions are becoming
increasingly limited through societal age segregation
such as schools, workplace, housing, and families
living in different regions (Hagestad and Uhlenberg,
2005). This may mean that young designer’s
interactions with older adults may be limited. These
factors may also contribute to a lack of awareness of
differences in the needs of older adults compared to a
younger gaming community. Further difficulties may
arise due to an I-methodology design approach. This
is where designers design a game with the perception
that they are representative of end users (Akrich,
1995). Although the designer may, or may not be
aware of this, it has implications. Some have argued
that when an I-methodology design approach is used
then the diversity of gamers may be neglected
including aspects as age and gender (Loos, 2014;
Romero and Ouellet, 2016). Thus, introducing game
design students to varied end users may allow for
increasing awareness of diversity.
1.1 Importance of Learning in Later
Life
Maintaining cognitive engagement with life is
essential to the quality of life of older adults. One way
of doing this is through providing older adults with
increased learning opportunities. Learning may play
an important role in promoting cognitive health in
older adults (Beddington et al., 2008). Furthermore,
learning habits have been associated with an
increased sense of well-being in older adults (Jenkins
and Mostafa, 2015). Such learning activities are not
only beneficial for the individual, but often have a
positive effect on community engagement and well-
being (Merriam and Key, 2014).
Unlike younger adults who may be more
concerned with degrees and enhancing career
opportunities, older adult learners are often engaged
in activities for enjoyment. Thus, older adults must be
motivated by the content (Kim and Merriam, 2004).
Technology is a great opportunity for older adults to
engage in informal learning. Our research team has
been involved in a number of projects aimed at
engaging older adults in technology enhanced
learning experiences. We have been trying to find
innovative ways to provide engaging learning
experiences for older adults.
1.2 Human-centred Design,
User-Centered Design, and
Participatory Design for
Representation
Approaches to innovative designs have undergone a
change with increased interest in incorporating the
feedback and needs of end users and other
stakeholders (Sanders, 2002). User-centered game
design has become increasingly popular. It allows for
game designers to better understand the end users and
their needs. This is important since the game industry
is still limited in diversity (International Game
Developers Association, 2016). User-centered design
is an iterative process whereby the user is considered
at all stages of development (Nicholson, 2012). It
seeks to collect data around users’ behaviors, needs
and practices to provide more intuitive systems and
interfaces (Perry et al., 2013). Previous studies have
also pointed to the need for more participatory design
processes to allow for a better representation of such
aspects such as age and gender (Romero and Ouellet,
2016). One approach has been to incorporate others
(beyond the design team) in the process of design
(Sanders et al., 2010).
Extending from user-centered design, Van Abeele
and Van Rompaey (2006) suggested that these ideas
needs to be pushed further to incorporate the end user
early in the process. Vanden et al., (2006) adopted a
human-centered (HC) procedure to design game
concepts for and with older adults. This procedure
started with observing older adults’ positive
experiences in their daily life. Then, older adults and
researchers generated game-ideas and co-designed
the selected ideas into some game concepts. Loos
(2014) suggested that Vanden et al’s HC procedure
was a way to avoid some of the pitfalls of I-
methodology.
2 RESEARCH APPROACH AND
METHOD
In the current project, we used a combination of user-
centered design and participatory design approaches
to facilitate collaboration between researchers, the
instructor, game design students, and the older adults.
All stakeholders had some input into the game design
and provided feedback throughout; however, as this
was a school project there were some limitations to
the contributions as the students had the final
decisions on what feedback to incorporate.
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2.1 Context Participants
This collaboration involved five researchers, thirteen
older adults, sixty students, and one instructor. The
students attended an art school and were seeking
degrees as either game designers, programmers, or
artists. Most of the students were in their early 20s.
The older adults were aged over 60 and recruited from
the community.
There were five meetings in which the researchers
and/or older adults came in to provide feedback and
guidance. The students formed teams of 5 – 12
students. For this class, students were required to
create a digital game for older adults with some form
of learning incorporated into the design. Specific
criteria:
1. create digital games for older adults that can be
played on tablets and/or personal computers
2. create games that can be played both alone and
with other players
3. consider the possibility of creating a game that can
be played by an intergenerational team
4. embed subject matter content into the games that
is appropriate and motivating to older adults
(learning)
5. conduct evaluation of the games with groups of
older adults
Within the nine-month class they collaborated to
create a video game that met these conditions. After
the initial meetings, older adults were brought in for
consultation.
2.1.1 First and Second Meetings
In our first meeting, researchers explained the project
and gave students a profile of what we had learned
about older adults and digital gameplay based on
previous research. We also presented them with
topics of interest based on the over 55+ programs of
interest at the researchers’ university. The students
were asked to consider this information and come up
with a pitch for a game idea by the next meeting.
However, in this session the researchers, students,
and instructor did brainstorming exercises. In this
meeting the researchers also had to adjust their
criteria, as multiplayer games were not within the
scope of the course. Thus, the focus was on older
gamers and embedding learning content.
In the second meeting, students pitched ideas to
the instructor and researchers, including one
researcher over 65. The ideas that were most suitable
and engaging were chosen. In previous years, the
class had been given free reign on the project. The
researchers noted some initial resistance to the
restrictions.
2.1.2 Third, Fourth, and Fifth Meeting
For the third, fourth, and fifth meetings we brought
various groups of 5-7 older adults to test the games
and provide feedback. In our third meeting, a group
of older adults joined us to comment on the art,
storyline, and game ideas as they had progressed.
There weren’t any prototypes at this point and it was
still in the early production days. It allowed the
students to get feedback on whether the concept was
appealing to the age group. Some game design teams
asked questions about preference of art style and
other aspects.
In the fourth and fifth meetings, older adults came
with the researchers to test the prototypes and provide
feedback. Both the researchers and the student game
design teams asked questions to the older adults and
shared their findings with each other. This process
also involved extensive observation.
2.2 Data Collection
Data from the older adult participants was collected
by the researchers and the game designers. This
included print-based questionnaires and observations
of older adults playing the games. The researchers
also collected data on the process the students went
through and their experiences. This included
observations, some of their work and progress, as
well as final focus group interviews with each game
team and the instructor.
2.3 Dig It Case Study
The current study reports on the results from one of
the game teams, Dig It. This game team was selected
since their project was chosen as one to be continued
after the class had finished. They had also kept
records of adjustments and observations. The team
consisted of one game designer/project lead, three
modellers/artists, two programmers, and three sound
designers.
2.4 Data Analysis
The focus group interviews were analyzed using a
thematic analysis approach. Interview recordings
were transcribed and imported into QSR NVivo 10.

A thematic analysis was conducted on the focus
group interview in which the transcript was examined
for patterns and themes related to the process and
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categories were found that related to the user-centered
game approach with older adults (Saldana, 2015).
Beyond the limits outlined, a mainly inductive
approach to analysing the data was used (Thomas,
2006). The analysis followed the phases of thematic
analysis outlined by Braun and Clarke (2006). The
transcript was read, initial codes identified, themes
were formulated, then refined, and named. A thematic
analysis was also done on the surveys the older adults
filled out on the Dig It game as well as the feedback,
observations and adjustments reported by the team.
An examination of the data attempted to find themes
that were common to all three sources of data.
3 RESULTS: Dig It
3.1 Game Description
Dig It was designed for older adults featuring learning
content about archaeology. The game students
wanted to make it a game that had intergenerational
appeal; thus, grandparents may want to play it with
grandchildren.
Figure 1: Dig It dig site.
In the teams’ own words “Dig It is an archaeological
collection game where the user travels the world to
geographically accurate dig sites (Figure 1). Players
dig up either fossils, gems and/or artefacts. They then
take these back to their museum, display them and
then run an exhibition to show them publicly. They
are given a score based on what they have displayed
(Figure 2).”
Figure 2: Museum.
3.2 Older Adult Feedback and
Observations
Most of the older adults felt that the game was a great
concept and engaging to play. They were impressed
with the creativity of the students and expressed
excitement in their feedback. This game was rated
highly on a scoring from 1-10 on enjoyment. Table 1
outlines some of the questions they asked the
participants in the fourth session. Most of the
participants rated many aspects highly 8-10, with one
participant rating it very low. However, placing
objects and inventory were rated relatively lower
(Table 1).
Table 1: Rating of different game features.
Question Average (n = 6) Highest rating
Smoothness of digging 7.1 10 = Perfect
Finding treasure enjoyable 7.8 10 = Very fun
Placing objects in museum 5.2 10 = very easy
How understandable were
inventory icons?
5.3
10 = knew what
to do
Desire to find more treasure
after museum
7.1 10 = extremely
N
avigation difficulty 7.0 10 = very easy
The written feedback and observations were similar
to the ratings, with an overall enjoyment, but some
difficulties relating to instructions and clarity of
purpose, with some difficulty with moving and
picking up objects. These aspects were noted in the
observations, feedback given to students, and
feedback given to researchers in both the fourth and
fifth meetings.
3.2.1 Increased Instruction
One aspect that the team members noted was related
to this demographic needing more instructions. The
older adults liked to have instructions clearly given;
they were not as interested in simply discovering
through trial and error. For example, written and
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verbal feedback from older adults included comments
such as “Make sure there's enough instruction”,
“instructions ahead of time about the dig tools”, “add
initial instructions”, “I needed to be told what to do.”,
“How to collect not evident”.
3.2.2 Clarity in Actions and Artifacts
As this was a learning game, older adults had various
questions about the game and they wanted further
information. Although this somewhat related to the
request for more instructions and guidance, it was
also about wanting to be clear about where everything
was and what it was. Thus, some participants
suggested it was “A bit confusing” and aspects such
as “Locating artifacts not clear” or they wanted more
information about objects such as “A bit more
information about the pick, brush and selection tools
would be helpful”.
The team also made observation of the struggles
and attempted to address these based on feedback. An
example:
Observation: Older adults were not able to tell what
treasures were in their inventory. This was because of
a lack of information given to the player when
selecting items in the inventory.
Solution: Adding information boxes for inventory
treasures should solve this problem. When the player
selects an item in their inventory an information box
will appear, explaining what the object is.
3.2.3 Physical Manipulation of Objects
Caused Some Difficulty
There were a few difficulties with physical
manipulation of items and the game. Some older
adults made comments such as “For me, handling it
is a bit hard.” Or others hinted at difficulties by
making suggestions such as, “Make it easier to move
pieces in the museum”.
The team also observed the struggles when
working with the older adults and watching them play
the games. Thus, in their observations they noted
these. For example:
Observation: Older adults struggled greatly with
picking up treasures from the dig spot using their
finger. This issue was because the finger print and
pressure differed greatly from each individual (i.e.,
some had a very light touch, long fingernails getting
in the way, small fingers).
Solution: A pick-up tool that will make grabbing
objects easier. The tool will make the players finger
cover a wider area in-game, so even small fingers or
long nails will not stop the player from picking up
objects.
3.3 Interview with the Dig It Team
Interviews were conducted with the Dig It team at the
end of the nine months. They were excited to discuss
the process and a range of themes emerged.
3.3.1 Thinking outside Demographic; Older
Adult Feedback Invaluable
The game design group found the challenge of a
target audience outside their own demographic
rewarding. It made them think in diverse ways. This
was shown in comments such as:
“I think the best thing about doing this was it made
us think outside the box, made us really look at
people in a different light.”
“You just have to find the undiscovered, sort of
hidden gemstones. Pun intended.”
“You wouldn’t want to add less content because
they're at an older age or anything. You want to
put just as much content, if not more, but
introduce it in a much slower sort of dynamic so
that they're able to not only enjoy the experience
but also learn because they're very, very smart
people.”
This also caused a challenge since most of the people
they had easy access to to test their designs were not
the target group. This caused difficulty as the
feedback given by the younger game students within
the school was not necessarily relevant for the target
demographic, as these respondents commented:
“From a design perspective, I think the hardest
thing was when we designed the game the people
that we would always have to showcase to were
not people that we were building the game for. So
a lot of the feedback that we got was good for our
generation and not the other one.”
“a lot of people had a hard time recognizing that
or seeing the design choices we made as good
ones versus it could be better.”
A few other students commented that it was
challenging since they were used to designer for
younger regular players as seen in these comments:
“Things actually work in the game that would be
intuitive and like maybe obvious to people that
play games all the time. Whereas that’s not the
setting that we’re trying to build for, right?”
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“Obviously, we’re working with people who
may not actually play games in their spare time
at all, or very little compared to people that do
on a daily basis.”
“There's just certain things that would be
obvious to maybe people our age about how
things work or where your tools are or certain
things you have to do. But when it comes to this
target audience we kind of had to usher in a bit
of teaching just in the game class by itself, not
counting the actual education of the fossils,
artifacts and all that but rather a bit of education
on the how to play it.”
For many of these reasons the respondents felt the
feedback received by the older adults was an essential
part of the experience. As these comments suggest:
“That was probably the most useful feedback I
would say, because I mean I can ask a hundred
people that are in their late 20s what they would
prefer and I could ask 10 people or 5 people in the
range that we’re aiming for and the 5 people’s
feedback is going to be more accurate than the
hundred people in their mid-20s. So I would say
that the older adults’ feedback is the most
important part”
“a big part of it was the pace of the digging itself.
We had even our teacher and everyone else that
played our game saying like, “Oh, it’s too slow. I
want it faster. I want like more action.” And then
we all would keep saying, let’s step back and think
of it from our target audience’s, their viewpoint.
And all the feedback we've had on the pacing has
been generally like that’s the way that they've
enjoyed it.”
“Yeah, that’s definitely right. Because we can’t
possibly fathom how older adults would prefer it
until you see it yourself.”
“Like (instructor) was just like, “You should make
a timer for digging.” And I was like let’s test it
with them because they're coming in today.
Tested it and I added a specific survey question.
Do you want what we have which is the gauge or
do you want a timer? 100% voted what we had.”
As summed up by one respondent “Yeah. Their
feedback was like invaluable. Absolutely.”
3.3.2 Designing for the Target Audience
Valuable for Future Opportunities
The students felt that designing for a group outside of
their peers was valuable and could be an important
skill in their future careers, with one student
suggesting it helped raise interest by design
companies:
“I can actually talk from personal experience in
this. I met a designer from a game company
recently for coffee and just brought the game with
me. I just decided to show … And by the end of it
he was like, “Can I have your resume?” … It’s for
an audience that nobody has ever explored and
they find that very fascinating. And it will
definitely looks good … It’s a great, great
experience for any other actual professional game
company to look at. “
Another student suggested game companies often
also require focus on a target audience; and thus, it
enhanced their experience.
“the reality is the game industry companies out
there rarely just go and make games for
themselves.”
“our group of production students, we had a focus
I think is great.”
This included a sense that they had an advantage over
other students who had not had the opportunity
previously.
“Every other production group beforehand is
literally just they create their ideas and they go.
Whereas this is better for us because it’s styled the
same way as the industry where we have a target
audience and this is who we’re building for and
let’s focus on that… that experience has been like
awesome”
3.3.3 Next Design Would Include More
Instructions
The one thing they would do differently in a second
design, related back to many of the comments of the
participants, that of requiring further instructions to
save a lot of “trial and error”.
“Well, we would probably make 100% sure we
have a tutorial.”
“That’s a biggie for us… you have to kind of teach
some the game mechanics in general first, I think
they kind of miss that because we didn’t have a
tutorial. So sometimes, unless one of us is right
there showing the person how to play, it’s a little
bit difficult to understand.”
“The tutorial is the first next thing we’re putting
there so that it’s not so hard to understand where
you're supposed to go and what you're supposed
to do.”
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“In hindsight, making that introduction much
smoother like how to play the game tutorial, that’s
definitely one thing I’m doing.”
4 DISCUSSION
This case study of one of the teams involved in the
project outlines the students’ process and shows how
certain aspects that younger designers take as
“intuitive” may not actually be intuitive for older
adults. Simply getting feedback and suggestions from
their peers does not allow them to understand the
needs of a diverse demographic of game players.
Thus, the user-centered approach allowed the
students to gain insights beyond their own
experiences and think of design in different ways.
Also of note, the young game design students
pointed out the intelligence of the older adults in
regards to making sure that the learning content was
extensive. However, they were also surprised at the
increased need for guidance and learning of game
mechanics, in which they felt younger gamers would
be more likely to figure out quickly. The design
students seemed to respect the older adults feedback
and needs finding it invaluable information.
User centered design is becoming more common
for technology design. Yet, students still often design
for “themselves”. This can be useful as they are only
beginners, learning the skills required for game
design. Nevertheless, this study suggests a benefit of
including a target audience that is often overlooked
within the game design industry and is a different
demographic from the students. The students
appreciated this as it forced them to think about
design considerations from a different perspective. As
mentioned by Romero and Ouellet (2016), game
design is a great exercise in critical thinking and
problem solving. Challenging students to look
beyond their understanding and use critical thinking
to solve problems can enhance their experience.
4.1 Limitations and Future Directions
One of the limitations was that it took some
coordination for all the collaborators to come
together. Ideally, students would have liked even
more input from older adults but this was not possible
for the current study. Currently, analysis is being
done on the data collected so far. The students have
finished designing their games and two were chosen
for further development (including Dig It). We are
hoping to test these games more extensively to
determine their appeal and success as learning games
with a larger older adult population.
5 CONCLUSIONS
User-centered design and participatory design can be
a useful approach to collaborations with students and
providing a better gaming experience for older adults.
One guideline for future inclusion of older adults in
game design is to bring them into the process early
and often. It is also important to be aware of the vast
differences in the needs and interests of older adults.
Thus, increasing the number and age range of older
adults who participate would be advantageous. The
students were surprised to observe that certain aspects
that seemed “intuitive” to them were not as obvious
for the older adults. It is important for the students to
get an opportunity to observe what is working, to talk
to the older adults while they play, and to think
critically beyond the student cohort norms.
The Dig It team felt that the user-centered design
approach and collaboration with researchers and
older adults was a beneficial experience that could be
rewarding for the future. This process was a unique
experience that allowed for new perspectives to be
formed. The older adults also found the games
engaging. Overall, such collaborations can allow for
a further understanding of different perspectives by
all collaborators.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was supported by AGE-WELL NCE Inc.,
a national research network supporting research,
networking, commercialization, knowledge
mobilization and capacity building activities in
technology and aging to improve the quality of life of
Canadians and contribute to the economic impact of
Canada. AGE-WELL is a member of the Networks of
Centres of Excellence (NCE), a Government of
Canada program that funds partnerships between
universities, industry, government and not-for-profit
organizations.
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