Design of a Digital Solution to Motivate Older Adults to Follow Cognitive and Physical Training for an Active and Healthy Ageing

Valentina Guadagno, Ana Isabel Martins, Christina Schneegass, Tilman Dingler, Joana Pais, Nelson Rocha, Jos Kraal

2025

Abstract

Active and healthy ageing depends on maintaining physical and cognitive activity, but it is still challenging to motivate older adults to participate in regular training. This paper describes the iterative design and evaluation of a digital platform for increasing older adults' motivation to perform physical and cognitive exercises. The digital solution was designed and evaluated in four iterations with a total of 13 older adults. The first stage focused on identifying effective communication methods, including different formats of instructional delivery and feedback, as well as tone. The second stage explored the combination of physical activity with cognitively stimulating activities, such as brain games, sport, and hobbies, to find the most motivating combinations. The final stage developed the prototype further by integrating motivational elements into one coherent design, emphasizing clarity, guidance, and user agency. The final evaluation reviewed the overall design, including the importance of adaptive systems that dynamically adjust the difficulty level to align with users' physical and cognitive abilities to increase motivation. This study contributes to the growing field of participatory design within digital health interventions, aligning with best practices that emphasize the need for dynamic user involvement in all stages of development.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Guadagno V., Martins A., Schneegass C., Dingler T., Pais J., Rocha N. and Kraal J. (2025). Design of a Digital Solution to Motivate Older Adults to Follow Cognitive and Physical Training for an Active and Healthy Ageing. In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health - Volume 1: ICT4AWE; ISBN 978-989-758-743-6, SciTePress, pages 343-351. DOI: 10.5220/0013434300003938

in Bibtex Style

@conference{ict4awe25,
author={Valentina Guadagno and Ana Martins and Christina Schneegass and Tilman Dingler and Joana Pais and Nelson Rocha and Jos Kraal},
title={Design of a Digital Solution to Motivate Older Adults to Follow Cognitive and Physical Training for an Active and Healthy Ageing},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health - Volume 1: ICT4AWE},
year={2025},
pages={343-351},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0013434300003938},
isbn={978-989-758-743-6},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health - Volume 1: ICT4AWE
TI - Design of a Digital Solution to Motivate Older Adults to Follow Cognitive and Physical Training for an Active and Healthy Ageing
SN - 978-989-758-743-6
AU - Guadagno V.
AU - Martins A.
AU - Schneegass C.
AU - Dingler T.
AU - Pais J.
AU - Rocha N.
AU - Kraal J.
PY - 2025
SP - 343
EP - 351
DO - 10.5220/0013434300003938
PB - SciTePress