Mobile game design for the elderly: A study with focus on the motivation to play

Since the average age of the world population is growing, applications that are appropriate for the elderly, taking into account limitations caused by aging, will be increasingly necessary. One of these applications is digital games, which can bring benefits to the elderly, particularly in the prevention and treatment of cognitive disorders. Based on this context, this study aimed to identify the main features that motivate the elderly to play mobile games. For this purpose, we developed a digital catalog of games or gamebook, which helped to identify the preferences of the elderly regarding game genres. After, we developed a game for smartphone, focusing on the elderly, which took into account the main features raised in previous activities. A group of old people played the game and after that, we applied a questionnaire and interviewed them, in order to determine the characteristics of the game considered relevant by them. We concluded that several factors influence the motivation of the elderly to play, however, the motivational characteristic more evident was that the elderly consider digital games as important tools to help in the treatment of cognitive disorders due to aging.