Group 1

DTU
2011
DESIGN FOR ELDERLY – PHASE ONE
Trygve Aabye Dam, s072046
Rune Schostag Nielsen, s062454
42072 – Design for Interaction, Group 1 | Trygve Kelly Strong, s111255 Aabye Dam, s072
Oliver Valsgaard, s082523
Thorbjørn Pasgaard, s110458
Thomas Paulsen, s112342

Virtual activity center for elderly
Introduction
This report is the final assignment in the course Interaction Design 42072 at DTU. The
motivation of the project is to design a useful product or service for elderly people, which they
can benefit from in their everyday. The development will focus on the interaction between the
design and the elderly. The project includes user-involvement of elderly people from a Danish
Activity Center for elderly.
Background
Today, more and more elderly are feeling lonely and are living on their own. During the last 30
years, an increasing number of people are getting divorced, and the growth was especially high
during the late 70‟s and early 80‟s 1 . An effect that is seen today, 40 years later as more and more
couples live alone. Furthermore, the difference in life expectancy of 4.2 years between men and
women, leaves many women on their own after their husband dies.
According to recent research done by “Ensomme Gamles Værn”, 40.000 elderly above 60 are
feeling lonely, that in addition to the people who occasionally feel abandoned, the number adds
up to 112.000. Additionally, loneliness is considered to be very shameful among elderly, who are
less likely to not share their situation 2 . The actual number is therefore considered to be
substantially higher.
Besides the more visible physical consequences, loneliness amongst elderly also results in a
number of health issues. Decrease in well-being in form of depression, sleeping problems,
disturbed appetite and so on are a frequent result. More pathological consequences are alcohol
over-consumption, loss of self-esteem, extreme form of anxiety, powerlessness and stress.
Furthermore, the risk of developing dementia is seven times higher when elderly are feeling
lonely 3 . Loneliness is thus amongst the latent causes of hospitalization and of placement in
nursing homes. 4
Furthermore the population of elderly will increase in the future according to the European
Commission and EPC 5 - Which has the potential to make these problem statements even greater
and more widespread within a few decades.
1 Danmarks Statistik (www.dst.dk)
2 Gierveld, 1998
3 Research done by the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm
4 Gierveld, 1998
5 Course slides Interaction Design week 6 page 10 Fall 2011 DTU
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Problem statement
Today, elderly people get together in groups and play games to socialize. However, as they get
older they become more and more immobilized as their musculoskeletal system becomes
weakened. Thus, many elderly are forced to stay at home and an effect of that is that they
become lonely. In effort to address this, a number of Activity Centers are provided by the Danish
government where elderly come and do social activities with other elderly people. However, not
all elderly are able to be associated with an Activity Center due to their location and going to a
Activity Center only twice a week might not be satisfactory.
With this project, the project group is trying to address this problem by allowing elderly people,
who are living on their own, to connect with other elderly people from their homes and be able to
play games with each other online. By that they will still be able to socialize, when immobilized
and unable to leave their homes. Additionally the elderly should also be able to connect to a
broader network of gamers, making them feel a part of a bigger social network. Thus decreasing
the chances of the user feeling lonely.
As the elderly tend to be rather scared of new technology and solutions, it is crucial that the
design of the new interactive game has a resemblance to their everyday electronics. It is crucial
that the learning curve is as flat as possible, allowing the elderly to slowly adjust to the new
system. Thus making sure that as many elderly as possible who keep playing the interactive
game, all joining in effort to decrease loneliness and the alarming consequences on health
amongst elderly.
List of requirements
●
●
●
Solution must be natural for the user by resembling their existing world, and current
knowledge.
Easy to use, as simple as possible. Without introducing any new interaction mediums.
Help decrease loneliness.
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Cognitive-psychical considerations
Different changes in physical and cognitive abilities can be observed when growing old, some of
the most common changes include:
●
●
●
Decreased muscle power, making it harder to e.g. walk long distances and get up
stairways
Decreased sensitivity of senses, especially visual and auditory
Reduced short term memory, complex tasks become harder to perform
In order to counter these conditions in a product design, the following may function as general
guidelines:
● The product should not require heavy physical activity
● Size of buttons, text and symbols have to be large
● Sound
○ Should be loud and clear
○ Lower frequency tones are easier for elderly users to hear (500-1000 Hz range) 6
● The product has to be simple to install, maintain and use – if possible not require any
given instructions
● Tactile feedback is preferable
● All needed information should be accessible through the current display. 7
Introduction to the Quizmaster
The group had previously agreed upon the topic, or problem we would like to design a solution
for; loneliness. The next step was to experience, through observation how the elderly are affected
and respond to loneliness in their daily lives. We had arranged to spend a day at a welfare
service, which is offered through the community for elderly to participate in weekly activities
together. After the group‟s involvement at the community activity center we were able to make
decisions on what we felt would be best for this target market based on our observations.
While at the activity center we got to experience a quiz game that was more an act of social
involvement than it was about competition or winning. The elderly people absolutely loved
playing this game, and interacting with others. However, they would need to leave their home
each time to play the game. Arranging transportation, and battling the weather in order to get to a
center that was far from home wasn‟t convenient. And so the group decided to take the game,
which they love and make it something that is accessible from home. It will be a challenge to
6 Digital Game Design for Elderly Users, Henk Herman Nap
7 Design for interaction, Lecture week 6: Design for elderly - Steen Dawids
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keep the social interaction of the players (the most important aspect of the game) prominent,
while also enhancing the accessibility for the users.
The home version of the quiz game will be a television quiz. The devices used between users for
social interaction would of course be the graphical user interface on the TV, the phone which is
used to communicate with other game participants, and as remote for responding to game
questions and a webcam. It is important that each device will be as maintenance free, and user
friendly as possible.
Field report - Visit at elderly activity center
Visit at Baunehøj activity center
The 8th of November the project group visited
Baunehøj Activity Center which is a common
daytime activity center for elderly. The center is for
elderly who are not able to leave their homes on
their own, so they are picked up two to three times
a week by a minivan from the center. Here the
elderly can participate in different social and
physical activities such as quiz games, gymnastics,
sit-dance and sewing up to 3 times a week.
While the group was visiting we observed the
elderly do two different games, a quiz game and a
word game similar to Scrabble. The most popular
game among the people seems to be the quiz game,
here they are all involved and can discuss the
questions and answers.
Meeting at the activity center
Another game available at the activity center was “Wheel of fortune”, the
caretakers had made their own spinning wheel for this game from the
components of a scrapped wheel chair and a hospital drop stand. The reason
they made their own spinning wheel was mainly to save money on an
already tight budget.
Word game
The word game is about creating words from a given core word, e.g.
“Activity center” and a caretaker is in charge of the game and writes the
words on a blackboard. Each member in the game now has to come up with
words that use some of the letters from the core word e.g. “Act” and each
letter can only be used once.
When one member has come up with a valid word the turn goes on to the
next member in the game and the valid word is written on the black board
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Homemade spinning wheel

y the caretaker. The game continues like this until the members cannot come up with anymore
words.
Example of the word game with the core word ”Halogenlamper”
Quiz
A group of elderly people gets together at Baunehøj Activity Center two to three times a week
for a quiz. Every time they team up into two teams and compete against each other. A lot of the
group members considered the quiz to be the favorite part of coming to Baunehøj as they thought
it was more socially interacting than other games. By playing in teams they have to socially
interact with each other to figure out “who knows what” before answering the questions.
“På sporet af ordet”
The day the project group was at Baunehøj, the group were playing “På sporet af ordet” (i.e.
tracking the word). The caretaker from Baunehøj acted as the “quizmaster” by which she were
asking the questions and helping with clues. To play the quiz, the caretaker started by picking up
a card, and she would take a card and tell the group the category of the card. After that she would
start by reading aloud clues from the card to pinpoint which word they had to guess.
Example:
Category: Term
A novel about my life has been written
I am best understood by a symbol
I am from Greece
I am the relationship between a circle‟s circumference and diameter
I am approximately 3.14
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Answer: Pi
While the caretaker was reading the clues aloud she gave the group quite a lot of time to consider
the answer. This allowed the group to discuss the answer with each other and to come up with
different answers. Sometimes the team was able to answer the question quite easily and other
times the caretaker had to help them along.
Social aspect of the game
The competition in the quiz was not very prominent during the game, and the focus of the game
was more on the social aspect and having a good experience. This was shown in the way that
none of the teams were not able to answer the questions at any time, as the caretaker would help
them with her own clues until they guessed it right. And when a team member from the other
team accidentally answered the question for the other team, it was considered a fun feature and
the group was simply happy that someone knew the answer.
During the game a lot of chatting was going on to discuss the answer to the questions. Not only
the team who had to answer the question was discussing, but also the competing group was
whispering with each other to figure out the right answer. And at the end of the game, the
caretaker told a story about the perfume “4711” and the group enjoyed to hear the story. This
corresponds to the group expressing that the quiz was their favorite game because of the social
aspect.
Elderly and technology
While talking with some of the elderly the topic of technological products was touched upon. It
seems every one of them has a phone, radio and a television and that they are familiar with these
products. However one of the ladies complained about the radio, she used to listen to P2 a lot,
but suddenly it had changed frequency and she‟d lost it, so now she never used her radio
anymore.
Selected quotes
“We can’t do without meeting here at the activity center” - Olga 76 years old
“I had a computer before, but I always accidentally pressed somewhere and something weird
happened.” - Tove 67 years old
“Having a computer is too difficult” - Jens 71 years old
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Existing solutions
There are many activities available for the elderly, all of which require some type of interaction
from one or more individuals participating. Many claim that a person‟s participation in these
interactive activities can have positive effects on the aging of the brain. It is debatable rather or
not these events actually slow the progress of brain conditions such as, dementia. However,
despite the lack of studies in the field, the evidence and empirical reasoning positively supports
the usage of social activities amongst the elderly.
The following list is an example of the most successful and popular social gaming options:
· Wii
· Nintendo DS
· Bingo
· Shuffle Board
· Card games
· Social Gatherings for T.V Game Shows- Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune
· Physical fitness classes- pool work outs and yoga
Nintendo has been a large part of the gaming world for the past 121 years when the company
was first founded to produce game cards. Since then it has very successfully produced gaming
consoles that compete for the top spots, each year. 8 They‟ve come a long way from card games,
as their most popular project used by seniors is the game console, the Nintendo Wii and
Nintendo DS. The Wii offers its users the state-of-the-art user interaction; as the device detects
your physical movements with its control, balance board or other devices. This console is
frequently being used in retirement homes, to keep the seniors physically and mentally active. A
less physical, Nintendo creation is the handheld console called Nintendo DS, which is typically
more of a mental interaction.
No matter the type of activity being performed, each revolves around social interactions. Some
can argue that games are significant because of its competitive characteristics, but the problems
with loneliness amongst seniors and the answers we received during our fieldwork prove
otherwise. It‟s a humanistic desire to want to be social; feel involved and cared about, so no
matter the activity it is important to the participants that they are interacting with others.
Technical possibilities
It is important that the system is left as simple as possible, for a hassle free setup. The physical
system will have as few wires as possible, just one for the power cable and another as a standard
connection for any television.
The graphical user interface will also be as hassle free as possible. It is a priority that the setup
process is fail-proof for the user. We have modeled our setup like the Apple products computer
8 "Company History" (in Japanese). Nintendo. Retrieved on 2006-07-29
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setup wizard. As soon as an Apple computer is taken out of a box, and plugged in the OS setup is
a step-by-step easy to use process. This simple process is a prime example of how we hope the
user feels when first starting their new gaming device.
The product will consist of a hub, and two other devices that connect to it. The hub will act as a
home, or charging station for the devices and as the „brain‟ of the system; due to most processes
going through it. The physical hub device will be small enough to fit easily below or beside any
television set.
A wireless camera will sit above or below the television that is set-up free. The only interaction
the user will need to cooperate with the camera is deciding where it sits still. The camera will
have a wide aperture, making it easy to pinpoint the user in front of it.
A cordless „phone‟ like device will also be a part of the system. The phone will also act as a
remote, for the user to interact with the screen.
Finally, the system will be equipped with a Sim card for wireless internet capabilities. A monthly
subscription fee will allow companies to „lease‟ the system and create an option for family
members to communicate with the system via online access or through an app.
Mock-up and physical sketches
The following drawings are the initial prototypes of the interactive game Quizmaster. The
physical setup contains drawings of the device, remote control and webcam together with a list
of options on how to connect the devices.
Box
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Remote Control
Controller
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Webcam
The following mock-up shows the different screens that the elderly will interact with. A brief
explanation of every screen is written directly on the wireframes and the actions between those.
The initial setup will only be shown when you start up the device the first time. That is the first
and last time the users have to interact with those screens. From then, the start screen
(Quizmaster The Game) will be the Quizmaster Main Screen where gaming with elderly friends
is accessible from.
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Initial Setup

Quizmaster The Game