Game Research as Path to Design Insights?
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009“unprecedented insight into how digital games can improve players’ health behaviors and outcomes”
The San Francisco Chronicle has an interesting article outlining recently funded University research into the affect of video games on health. The questions is can we develop video games that help people change behaviors or self-manage chronic illnesses? The Robert Wood Johnson foundation is giving $1.8M to nine teams to find out.
If this research is productive it should throw off many insights into designing for how minds work. Consider:
“For example, the research teams will delve into the popular dance pad video game Dance Revolution to see how it might help Parkinson’s patients reduce the risk of falling, or how facial recognition games might be designed to help people with autism better identify others’ emotions.
The studies will focus on diverse population groups that vary by race and ethnicity, health status, income level and game-play setting, with age groups ranging from elementary school children to 80-year-olds. The research teams will study participants’ responses to health games played on a variety of platforms, such as video game consoles, computers, mobile phones and robots.”
Hopefully the results will have implications far beyond the use of video games.
