A Review of Prototyping and Evaluating Approaches for Intergenerational Social Exergames Targeting Older Adults

As society ages, social exergames may play a significant role in promoting positive and effective intergenerational communication. This review presents a comprehensive overview of social exergames that facilitate social interaction among older adults, with a particular emphasis on intergenerational communication. The paper primarily concentrates on three key areas: (1) System design, mainly including the interactive devices used and the methodologies adopted for participatory design; (2) Evaluation methods, consisting of the particulars of the user groups engaged and the approaches used for data collection; (3) Considerations for future design research. A comprehensive literature search was conducted in the ACM Digital Library, covering articles published after 2010 using specific keywords, aiming to provide an overview of empirical studies on social exergames among older adults. According to the literature search and screening strategy, eight out of 355 articles were finally identified. Our findings demonstrate that social exergames for older adults can be categorized into two primary types: (1) task-based social exergames and (2) immersive social exergames. These games incorporate interactive devices to construct the gaming system; 37.5% of these studies focused on the interaction between different generations. Age and relationship factors in generational differences play a crucial role in game design. Besides mainstream qualitative analysis such as interviews and observations, the analysis of indicators such as physiological data gradually becomes the research trend of data collection to provide more comprehensive experiments and data support. This study provides an overview of system design and evaluation methods employed in social exergames for older adults, with implications for game designers and researchers.