Evaluating affective usability experiences of an exergaming platform for seniors

FitForAll (FFA) exergaming platform helps elderly to entertain themselves while they do their workout. Motion sensing devices depict user's movement patterns on a game screen. The work described here, highlights the significance of developing human-computer interaction systems focusing on the needs of end-users. Specific design techniques are adopted in order to provide seniors with content that is easily accessible and comprehensible. Some early results of a first prototype are presented. 14 seniors in total, either healthy or with cognitive decline (either mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia) have provided feedback on several aspects of platform usability. An additional evaluation component of the platform that is thoroughly investigated is the affective evaluation of the FFA platform. An important conclusion that stems from the present research is the highly significant predictive value of affective states on usability evaluation, highlighting the important role of the entertaining exergaming environment regarding its usability. Further investigation on the enhancement of seniors' affective experience during game play is of utmost importance to us, as there is strong evidence that dynamic game content adaptation according to one's affective state would result into better training adherence and seniors' reinforcement of motivation.