Co-smonauts: Game Interfaces for Elderly People in Co-located and Collaborative Play

This paper illustrates the impact of different game interface approaches for older persons in a collaborative and co-located setting. Concretely, we investigated if touch-based in comparison to physical game interface designs influence the perceived enjoyment and usability, as well as if certain interface solutions lower the barrier for the target player group to get involved in the game. To find answers to our research question, we designed, implemented, and evaluated a collaborative and co-located game called “Co-smonauts”. Within the game, the older person serves as a navigator for a starship captain to aid him/her to complete the game missions. Via the experimental setting, the navigators were confronted with two different versions of a game interface. Our study results illustrate that a digital slider-based game interface is well-suited for older players.