Een artikel uit 2007(!) over de mogelijkheden, problemen en aandachtspunten over het ontwerpen van games voor de oudere doelgroep. Erg de moeite van het lezen waard, nu nog (of meer nog zelfs!)
Korte quote eruit:
In short, seniors are hurt more by bad design, and increasing usability will significantly increase their satisfaction.
McGuire [24] studied the effectiveness of digital games in improving self-esteem among elderly long-term care residents. Elderly residents in one wing of the institution were offered video games for a period of eight weeks, whereas residents of a second wing did not have the opportunity to play video games. Results demonstrated that the elderly that played video games had an improvement in self-esteem. Similarly, Goldstein et al. [13] found that playing digital games for five hours per week for five weeks improved reaction times, self-esteem and sense of well-being for the elderly participants in his study. It did not, however, have a significant effect on cognitive performance when compared to controls
Digital games hold significant positive potential for elderly users – one that has hardly been tapped to date. In addition to entertainment value, there can be substantial therapeutic value in playing digital games. Moreover, digital games allow elderly people, like other users, to bond socially, both with online or physically co-located others, thereby enhancing their social connectedness and potentially enlarging their social support structure. Despite this potential, seniors are at present proportionally underrepresented as consumers of digital games, creating a significant and largely untapped market opportunity. One of the reasons for this state of affairs has been the focus of game developer studios to develop games primarily for adolescent users – games which do not usually resonate well with the interests, needs, abilities and limitations of elderly users.