Digital Inclusion of Elderly People: Designing a purposeful serious game interface with memorable music

A plethora of digital tools are available today with a relatively common aim to help achieve specific tasks or activities for the elderly. However, merely providing access to digital technology does not correlate with improved quality of life as digital interface design presumes certain physical gestures or understanding of what is being visually communicated to be reciprocated by the end users. Digitally affluent elderly people are collectively referred to as ‘silver surfers’ who represent a privileged group that has certain resources, motivation, and skills. However, those who require assistance with digital interfaces form the majority among the elderly population [1]. Numerous studies point to a lack of motivation from the elderly as a major reason for avoiding using digital tools. Yet, despite the rapid acceleration of the number of elderly on a global level, these users are involuntarily positioned in our society not to adopt digital tools to their full benefit due to the design of digital interfaces and conventions that implicitly assume users’ understanding and behavior as outcome. Getting older resentfully places the majority of elderly people in disadvantageous positions in our fast-paced, digitally driven society.

While digital games have become popular over the last decades for a wider audience, their usability has been criticized as insufficient for the elderly population. Younger people today often do not require explicit teaching related to using digital devices as they are implicitly expected to already be informed of shared gestural actions and perceptions, such as ‘swipe to view.’ On the other hand, elderly citizens are said to be experiencing barriers to using digital tools, such as access, knowledge, design, and trust [2]. Reaching digital equity in our society, especially for the elderly population who did not grow up with digital devices, is a complex challenge. But there exists an opportunity to apply what is referred to as serious games to work with various stages of cognitive abilities of older people. Serious games are defined as digital games serving serious purposes like education, training, advertising, research, and health [3]. The objective of serious games is to span beyond creating interfaces for entertainment purposes in order to fulfill a purpose that exceeds the self-contained aim of the game itself [4]. While a surge in different types of roles of artificial intelligence technologies exist to address care-driven needs of older adults, how can digital interfaces be purposely designed to promote digital inclusivity that rises from one’s individually motivated capability? What if technology served older people that promoted a sense of empowerment rather than positioning them as simply recipients of care?

My research for planned postdoctoral studies situates artifacts as central to the research process, by specifically positioning the role of music for non-entertainment purposes for promoting digital inclusion for older adults. As an interdisciplinary project that combines educational science and arts-based research, it is designed to investigate interactions with a digital interface that may motivate an individual’s agency from recognizing the non-materialistic value towards achieving a sense of functioning for the elderly. As decline in cognitive functioning is a common and gradual life event even as part of normal aging process, the potential impact stimulated by familiar forms of expression may activate different types of memories. A recent study [5] which demonstrated cognitive improvement from music stimulation with piano instruction also inspires pursuing a deeper study in examining the correlation between digital stimulation and interaction. I specifically situate memorable music from the elderly participants to evoke certain emotions that drive motivation in stimulating and enhancing interactions with a serious game-based digital interface. A shared cultural commonality, such as autobiographical memory of memorable music, may promote anticipation and expectation – two key factors that drive motivation which have been described as fundamental for the musical experience to understand the effects of music on emotion [6] – towards increasing engagement with digital interface. Data from one’s behavior with the digital interface triggered by memorable music may inform purposeful design goals for serious games that may contribute towards enhancing older adults’ cognitive abilities. A potential integral of artificial intelligence may involve assigning a novel dimension to its existing problem-solving field by adapting to varying states of cognitive function for monitoring purposes based on an individual’s interaction with a musical digital interface.

In summary, achieving digital inclusion of elderly people must look beyond increasing access to technology. It must actively question the meaning of social inclusion that stems from rigorous digital interface design research that evokes purpose for the elderly’s fundamental wellbeing as coexisting citizens.

Sunny Choi, PhD is the vice president of product and operations at Clefer. She has worked on building education software applications for over 5 years. Email: choi.sunnys@gmail.com

References

1. Olsson, T., & Viscovi, D. (2020). Who actually becomes a silver surfer? Prerequisites for digital inclusion. Javnost-The Public, 27(3), 230–246.

2. World Economic Forum. How can we ensure digital inclusion for older adults? (2022, December 12). https://www.weforum.org

4. Mitgutsch, K., & Alvarado, N. (2012, May). Purposeful by design? A serious game design assessment framework. In Proceedings of the International Conference on the foundations of digital games (pp. 121–128).

5. Worschech, F., James, C. E., Jünemann, K., Sinke, C., Krüger, T. H. C., Scholz, D. S., Kliegel, M., Marie, D., & Altenmüller, E. (2023). Fine motor control improves in older adults after 1 year of piano lessons: Analysis of individual development and its coupling with cognition and brain 2 structure. The European journal of neuroscience, 57(12), 2040–2061. https:// doi.org/10.1111/ejn.16031

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