Game Development for the Elderly: Experiences from Usability Tests in the Wild

Playing video games can be beneficial for cognitive skills and mental wellbeing, especially for the elderly. Game design and user testing for the elderly is, therefore, an important consideration. In this paper, we present experiences from usability tests of a touchscreen puzzle game with elderly users. As a result of the user tests, we observed some common behaviors. In general, the elderly testers found it difficult to approach the game without instructions and were not able to get the game going using only trial and error. To get started with the game, the testers preferred animated tutorials over detailed written instructions. Additionally, the testers praised pop-up warning messages that appeared when they made mistakes. We also noted that within our test group individuals had somewhat different mental models about the game and its mechanics, which made improving the game design difficult.