2014 回憶大富翁 Memoir Monopoly

Purpose

Tools for the rehabilitation of the elderly living with dementia are needed in Taiwan because the tools imported from overseas or initially designed for children are not age appropriate. Most paper-made rehabilitation tools have the drawbacks of inflexible designs and of limited ability to stimulate the user. This paper presents the development of a rehabilitation game app called Memoir Monopoly (MM), designed to engage persons living with dementia in rehabilitation activities. Working with an occupational therapist, we designed a highly flexible reminiscing rehabilitation game app for the elderly living with dementia to have interactive activities, including structured reminiscing, cognitive training, reality orientation, sensory stimulation, and social events.  

Method

We adapted research through user-experience design process to conduct the MM project. First, user experience research (UXR) of the current tools used by the elderly living with dementia in rehabilitation revealed the need for a more interactive reminiscing game. Second, based on UXR findings, we designed a highly flexible ‘reminiscing’ and touchable rehabilitation game across four iPads with sharing screen sync and tokens with user faces on the surface for physical indications and interactions. Each individual’s iPad was used to collect personal photos and preferences at home. When being placed together for a group reminiscence rehab session, the individual contents were pulled together by the hosting occupational therapist to responsively create a unique map for the participants with proper level of difficulty to suit their personal experiences, increase their interests, and encourage their recall of the past. Various cognitive stimuli, including watching movie clips, listening to favourite songs, and touching interactive games, help participants to experience a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction in the rehab process.

Results & Discussion

MM was successfully brought into one group rehab event at day care centers once for a field test. Based on the observations and interview of the therapist and center caregivers, we found the elderly living with dementia in the test were more actively willing to share their stories, using their own photos and movies, and also interested in playing the reminiscence games, compared to their previous paper game events. This preliminary research result demonstrates that our design might resolve the problems found in UXR. A game matching their life experience and various interactions did encourage the elderly to participate in the reminiscence game and if reminiscence supports memory functioning there is the hope that engaging in this type of group activities may improve their quality of life.

References

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Keywords: User experience, Tangible Interaction, Dementia, Rehabilitation games

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