Design for senior gamers

Purpose There are compelling social and financial reasons why game developers should think seriously about making their games interesting and accessible to seniors. Digital games hold a significant promise for enhancing the lives of seniors, potentially improving their mental and physical wellbeing, enhancing their social connectedness, and generally offering an enjoyable way of spending time1,2. This paper discusses a number of demographic characteristics, age-related motivational factors and sensory, cognitive and motor abilities of the senior population that may have an influence on their gaming experience. Method A literature review was performed on senior game design, gerontechnology and gerontology, and game studies with a focus on usability, player experience, game interaction devices, and motivational factors. Results on age-related changes and digital gaming design guidelines for senior users were gathered and categorized. Results & Discussion Digital gaming design guidelines for seniors are presented, which may enhance the usability of game interfaces and controllers. Moreover, we present opportunities to create digital games that will offer engaging content combined with an interface that seniors can easily and pleasurably use. Though necessary, usability is not a sufficient condition to achieve a rich and rewarding game experience for elderly users. Taken together, the research and recommendations presented in this paper are intended to support gerontoludic design3 of digital games. We feel enthused by the potential that digital games hold for increasing mental, physical, and social wellbeing of senior populations, and are encouraged by research results that suggest several benefits on seniors' memory and cognition, as well as their self-efficacy and computer literacy. In designing for seniors, we are not only designing for our future selves, but also for a broad range of today's younger gamers with diverse abilities, including gamers with several types of cognitive, sensory or motor limitations4.