Problem Back Up

During a meeting with Mike Lee of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) it was brought to our attention that many senior citizens and some older adults face significant barriers both towards becoming comfortable using computers and staying mentally and physically active. Mr. Lee challenged us to come up with a piece of software that would encourage older adults to overcome these issues. Immediately, we realized it was going to be difficult to convince users to play a game which tried to persuade them to change their lifestyle. Therefore, during the planning stages of the development process, we focused on thinking of methods of convincing users to play the entire game. Ultimately, we concluded that—in addition to a fun game—we needed to promise the user a significant reward upon completion. Therefore at its core, the AARPG is a persuasive trivia game that attempts to make users more comfortable on the web and to lead a more active lifestyle.

Previous Work in the Field Back Up

Commercial Systems

Few high-quality online trivia games share our aim to change users’ lifestyles.  This lack of related work made it difficult to design a game to meet our goals.  However, after studying a variety of fun and addicting trivia games, we realized how to use the elements of a trivia game to make a high-quality game that is both addicting to play and beneficial to the user’s health and computer ability.  Although the initial design was difficult to realize, we have the final advantage of being the first game of its kind.

The DaVinci Code Game

“Da Vinci Game” 2005. RandomHouse games. October 2, 2005. <http://www.randomhouse.com/doubleday/davinci/main.html>

Located at www.randomhouse.com/doubleday/davinci/main.html, the DaVinci Code Game is perhaps the best example of a trivia game that keeps the user’s attention.  Based off the best selling book, The DaVinci Code, the game wraps a mysterious story around trivia questions.  It influenced our game design, since we found it to be effective in grasping the user’s attention and having a simple user interface.  In addition, the game combines online tasks with offline tasks such as using the telephone.  This interactivity made this game more interesting and unique than other trivia games.  Similarly, we developed our game with offline tasks in mind as well.

Senior Store

“Games for Seniors” 2005. Senior Store.com October 2, 2005. <http://www.seniorstore.com/hobbies.html> 

Located at www.seniorstore.com, Senior Store is the premiere online store for products for people over the age of fifty.  It categorizes its products into gifts for grandmothers, grandfathers, moms, dads, and more.  This site gave us a good idea: not all adults are interested in the same things and so it would be smart to develop a variety of tasks and questions that target different users.

Academic Papers

As expected, we found a variety of academic papers relating to persuasive technique.

Using Causal Persuasive Arguments to Change

Anderson, Craig & Slusher, Morgan (1996). Using Causal Persuasive Arguments to Change Beliefs and Teach New Information: The Mediating Role of Explanation Availability and Evaluation Bias in the Acceptance of Knowledge. Journal of Educational Psychology, 88(1), 110-122.

The authors of this article challenged the hypothesis that causal arguments have the greatest persuasive power.  The researchers performed two experiments in which causal evidence and non-causal (such as statistical) evidence were used to argue that AIDS is not transmissible by casual contact.  The results indicated that the original hypothesis was correct; casual arguments are the most persuasive in nature.  This source was relevant to our project because one of our original goals for the game was to get seniors to change their behavior to learn to use a computer effectively.  In the end, we decided that we would focus on improving the senior’s use of the computer by making them perform different tasks in order to progress through the game.

The Persuasion Knowledge Model: How People Cope with Persuasion Attempts

Friestad, Marian & Wright, Peter (1994). The Persuasion Knowledge Model: How People Cope with Persuasion Attempts. The Journal of Consumer Research, 21(1), 1-31.

The authors of this article present The Persuasion Knowledge Model, a model describing how people’s previous knowledge of the marketer’s goals impacts their response to persuasion attempts.  They conclude that there is a marked difference between the acceptance of information given in a non-persuasive atmosphere and when the consumer realizes the marketer’s intent.  This paper was also relevant because it made us decide that an indirect approach to behavior change was best.  The idea is that no one would want to play a “game” that had lessons and tasks that were obviously meant to increase proficiency with the computer.

The Persuasive Impact of Message Spacing

Malaviya, Preshant & Sternthal, Brian (2001). The Persuasive Impact of Message Spacing. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 6(3), 233-255.

The researchers of this paper attempt to scientifically analyze the effectiveness of exposure to various spacing between identical messages (they acknowledge that much research had previously been completed regarding the impact of persuasive messaging).  They conclude not only that high repetition can decrease the impact of the messaging, but that lower repetition can actually increase the persuasion effectiveness.  This paper was relevant to our project because it convinced us that it is best not to repeat the same kinds of lessons over and over.  One of the goals for our game was to improve cognitive health in older adults, by stimulating them with memories from their past.  We decided to have our game span 4 decades from the 1950’s to the 1980’s instead of focusing on a single time period.

Towards an Ethics of Persuasive Technology

Berdichevsky, Daniel & Neunschwander, Erik (1999). Towards an Ethics of Persuasive Technology. Communications of the ACM, 42(5), 51-59.

The authors attempt to prove the importance of ethical issues relating to technology and persuasion.  They outline a “golden principle” of technological persuasion (that those who create technology should not include persuasive elements that they themselves would not consent to).  This paper was important because we did not want to elicit behavior change in an unethical way.  We ruled out subliminal messages and other ethically questionable means of behavior change.

Everyday Problem Solving in Older Adults

Diehl, M., Marsiske, M., Rosenberg, A., Saczynski, J. S., Willis, S. L. (2005). The Revised Observed Tasks of Daily Living: A Performance-Based Assessment of Everyday Problem Solving in Older Adults. The Journal of Applied Gerontology, 24(3), 211-230.

This paper provides insight on the cognition of older adults in problem solving.  Test subjects were required to complete nine tasks involving medication use, telephone use, and financial management.  This paper was very relevant because we could relate the information to come up with game tasks for our users.

A Comparison of Cohabiting Relationships Among Older and Younger Adults

King, Valarie & Scott, Mindy E. (2005). A Comparison of Cohabiting Relationships Among Older and Younger Adults. Journal of Marriage and Family, 67, 271-285.

This study examines the importance and attitudes of both younger and older adults in terms of companionship.  Age affects intentions and assumptions companionship for older and younger adults.  Gaming can be a social phenomenon, this paper helped us to see the differences between how younger people interact when compared to older people.

Past experiences and older adults’ attitudes: a lifecourse perspective

Poortman, Anne-Rigt & Van Tilburg,  Theo G. (2005). Past experiences and older adults’ attitudes: a lifecourse perspective. Ageing & Society, 25, 19-39.

This study involves adults 55 years and older and their feelings toward gender roles and moral issues.  It gives insight on how older adults feel about freedom of choice and morality in their lifestyle.  This paper was relevant because we wanted to create a game for both genders.

Older adults’ use of information and communications technology in everyday life.

Selwyn, N., Gorard, S., Furlong, J., & Madden L. (2003). Older adults’ use of information and communications technology in everyday life. Ageing & Society, 23, 561-582.

This paper researches use of information and communications technology in the life of adults 60 years and older.  Gender, age, martial status, and educational factors of these adults are important factors in determining extent of computer usage among older adults.  The conclusion offers ways that technology can adapt to be more friendly to older adults.  After reading this paper, we decided that we would try to create our game in a user-friendly way for older adults.

Relevant Web Sites

Nutrition for the Elderly

“Nutrition for the elderly” 2005. Health Promotion Board 12 October 2005 <http://www.hpb.gov.sg/hpb/default.asp?pg_id=865&aid=100>

This particular website focuses on Nutrition for the elderly.  Elderly individuals need the same amount of nutrients, but typically less calories than more active younger persons.  One of our initial goals was to change the behavior of older adults to eat more healthy foods.  Later, we decided that this type of persuasive strategy could be seen as pushy and not a fun experience.

Older Persons’ Health

“Older Persons’ Health” September 21, 2005 National Center for Health Statistics 1 October 2005 <http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/older_americans.htm>

This is the website from the National Center for Health Statistics.  This particular page shows many statistics about the health of older adults in the United States.  Our focus was to help older adults’ mental health; this website gave us an idea of how many older adults suffer from mental problems.

Relevant Presentations

            J.C. Herz Talk

J.C. Herz, a renowned game critic that has written for the N.Y. Times, gave a talk at the AARP.  Her talk covered game design and a unique look at different innovative computer games.  This presentation was very useful in making design decisions for our game.  Some notes from the presentation can be found in Appendix B.