Usability of serious games for the training of people with dementia

Abstract

Dementia is a progressive syndrome affecting executive and motor functions. Serious gaming (SG) is an emerging treatment. However, its added benefit is difficult to establish since standardized usability evaluations are missing. We apply a recently developed observer-rated scale to determine the usability of two SG scenarios for people with dementia (PwD). Raters watched video recordings of a SG (MobiAssist) played by PwD and a virtual city through which healthy older adults walked. Raters completed the scale for both data sets and gave a prospective rating of VR city used by PwD. Usability was highest for MobiAssist, intermediate for VR city by healthy older persons, and lowest for the prospective rating of VR city used by PwD. The difference between the highest and the lowest data set was statistically significant with moderate magnitude but seems not substantial enough to exclude PwD from cognitively demanding training environments (e.g. VR city).