Designing a Social Exergame for Community-Dwelling Older Adults: The Impact of Collaboration Conditions on Psychological Needs and Gaming Well-being

Abstract

Against the backdrop of the "active aging" concept driving innovation in community-based elderly care services, enhancing the quality of social participation among older adults through technological means has become a critical research focus. Employing a design thinking framework, this study developed a prototype for a two-player gesture-based exergame through five stages: empathy, definition, ideation, prototyping, and testing. A within-subjects controlled experiment was conducted to compare the effects of symmetric and asymmetric collaboration conditions on the basic psychological needs and gaming well-being of 22 community-dwelling older adults. Findings indicate that the asymmetric condition fostered greater mutual attention and positive communication, thereby strengthening the sense of relatedness. In contrast, the symmetric condition provided a psychologically safer environment that facilitated recognition of individual contributions, leading to a stronger sense of competence. Both conditions yielded similar levels of autonomy and gaming well-being. Future designs of social games for older adults should explore more diverse and flexible collaborative forms and cultivate a shared culture conducive to exploration and growth. This study offers practical implications and insights for designing social exergames for older adults in community-based active aging initiatives.

Keywords: Community-dwelling Older Adults, Gesture-based Exergame, Social Gaming, Collaborative Condition

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1007570