TY  - JOUR
AU  - Muñoz, John
AU  - Mehrabi, Samira
AU  - Li, Yirou
AU  - Basharat, Aysha
AU  - Middleton, Laura E
AU  - Cao, Shi
AU  - Barnett-Cowan, Michael
AU  - Boger, Jennifer
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/1/19
TI  - Immersive Virtual Reality Exergames for Persons Living With Dementia: User-Centered Design Study as a Multistakeholder Team During the COVID-19 Pandemic
JO  - JMIR Serious Games
SP  - e29987
VL  - 10
IS  - 1
KW  - virtual reality
KW  - exergames
KW  - persons living with dementia
KW  - physical activity
KW  - head mounted displays
KW  - participatory design
KW  - co-development
KW  - gaming
KW  - older adults
KW  - elderly
KW  - design
KW  - dementia
KW  - VR
KW  - user-centered
KW  - exercise
KW  - COVID-19
AB  - Background: Advancements in supporting personalized health care and well-being using virtual reality (VR) have created opportunities to use immersive games to support a healthy lifestyle for persons living with dementia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Collaboratively designing exercise video games (exergames) as a multistakeholder team is fundamental to creating games that are attractive, effective, and accessible. Objective: This research extensively explores the use of human-centered design methods that involve persons living with dementia in long-term care facilitates, exercise professionals, content developers, game designers, and researchers in the creation of VR exergames targeting physical activity promotion for persons living with dementia/MCI. Methods: Conceptualization, collaborative design, and playtesting activities were carried out to design VR exergames to engage persons living with dementia in exercises to promote upper limb flexibility, strength, and aerobic endurance. We involved a total of 7 persons living with dementia/MCI, 5 exercise professionals, 5 community-dwelling older adults, a VR company for content creation, and a multidisciplinary research team with game designers, engineers, and kinesiology experts. Results: An immersive VR exergame called Seas the Day was jointly designed and developed and it is freely available to be played in state-of-the-art VR headsets (Oculus Quest 1, 2). A model for the triadic interaction (health care institution, industry partner, academia) is also presented to illustrate how different stakeholders contribute to the design of VR exergames that consider/complement complex needs, preferences, and motivators of an underrepresented group of end users. Conclusions: This study provides evidence that a collaborative multistakeholder design results in more tailored and context-aware VR games for persons living with dementia. The insights and lessons learned from this research can be used by others to co-design games, including remote engagement techniques that were used during the COVID-19 pandemic. 
SN  - 2291-9279
UR  - https://games.jmir.org/2022/1/e29987
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2196/29987
UR  - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35044320
DO  - 10.2196/29987
ID  - info:doi/10.2196/29987
ER  -