A VIRTUAL ESCAPE GAME FOR OLDER ADULTS’ INTERACTION AND SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT: A REPORT ON THE DESIGN AND USABILITY

This ongoing study, explores the effectiveness of a human-centred design for developing a virtual escape game for older adults and test the usability of the prototype game with regard to the educational goals defined for it, namely, empowering and engaging older adults to use technology, providing a social interactive experience, and providing an educational experience through various activities in a familiar literary setting for older adults. The game design was informed by our investigation of older adults’ needs and interaction patterns in real-life escape games. During the design process, older adults tested the game and it was refined based on their feedback and the research team’s observation of their play. It was found that older adults’ involvement throughout the whole design process can result in an end product which is better tailored to their needs. However, although incorporating older adults into the design process can significantly improve the design, as they provide insights that would not be available otherwise, there are several challenges that could affect the design. Therefore, there might be a need for a modified version of human-catered design for designing virtual games. Currently, the refined game is being tested for usability and playability by older adults to empirically validate the game's usability with regards to the goals defined for it. The results of this phase will be reported in due course.