UTOPIA NEWS Summer 2002

Games Workshop

The Dundee group ran a games workshop on 20^th June and received a lot of useful information, and some very positive feedback. Eleven older people with experience using computers but little or no experience playing computer games attended and were invited to play a variety of “adult-friendly” computer games with observers available to make suggestions or give help if needed.

The workshop produced some interesting conclusions for the project, including the need for immediate feedback when learning something new, and that music and sound effects do not appear to be very important when rating games.  

It was very interesting for us to see through follow-up interviews that most people had changed their perceptions of computer games.  Most participants did not know what to expect before they attended the workshop and had preconceived ideas based on exposure to children's computer games.  As one participant reported, the workshop was an "enlightening" experience.

Other comments on the workshop included: “thoroughly enjoyable”, “I thought it was wonderful, I learnt a lot, it was nice meeting people”, “Couldn’t commend it any higher - should have some more”.  As well as enjoying the workshop, many participants also enjoyed playing the games.  Especially popular were a game using the computer mouse to  draw circles around butterflies and a minigolf game.

Participants often remarked that such games would have positive effects such as helping  to improve hand-eye co-ordination and helping them to keep mentally active; experimental evidence supports this. In fact one participant was so impressed by the games she played at the workshop that she afterwards bought her first computer game! 

If you would like to try the sort of games played at the workshop some examples are available online:

      http://www.shockwave.com/sw/content/loop

      http://www.shockwave.com/sw/content/texttwist

      http://www.fhmus.com/images/reporter/slacker/miniputt.swf

It was particularly encouraging for us as a project team to find we had participants willing to try out something new - well done!  We’d like to thank everyone who took part in the workshop for their time and helpful comments, all the observers enjoyed the day very much and we look forward to running another workshop later in the year.  Anyone interested in attending should contact us.

Questionnaire

Many thanks to everyone who helped us with our questionnaire on lifestyle and technology. The response has been very encouraging and some of the initial results look interesting. We plan to keep distributing the questionnaire for a few more months, and so the results won’t be analysed properly until the autumn. When this has been done, we hope to include some of the results in this newsletter.

If you are over 50 and haven’t filled in a questionnaire but would like to, please contact us. You can also get a copy on the Glasgow part of the Utopia website:

http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/utopia

Memory Aids

The researchers at GlasgowUniversity are interested in how technology can help with memory. We've been having some discussions on this topic, and would like to thank everyone who helped. As a result, we think that we've got some interesting ideas.

For instance, imagine you had a device that beeped or flashed at you in advance of an appointment. It would work out how much in advance to tell you depending on how far you were from the appointment and your preferred method of transport for getting there. Then, for example, if you wanted to take the bus, it would direct you to the right bus stop, tell you which bus to get and when to get off it.

This is one of several ideas that we've had and we need you to tell us which ones are good and which ones could be improved. We are very interested to hear your suggestions and ideas. You can write to us at the address below to find out more and give us your comments.

Projects in Development

Exercise Project

The Dundeegroup are interested in technology and exercise; we are investigating a computer-based home exercise system that could provide motivating exercise regimes while ensuring the correct movements were being made and perhaps also monitoring the exerciser’s heart rate. One potential application would be helping physiotherapists to monitor people’s exercises after hip or knee replacements. The project is at a very early stage and we are looking to carry out discussions about helpful ways of using technology in this area and people’s experiences of hip or knee replacements.

Games Project

Abertay’s interest is in developing a game or gaming device for older adults.  In order to do so, we first need to understand what influences older adults to take part in leisure and entertainment activities, such as exercise, playing games, reading, etc.  We are keen to speak to both active and inactive people about leisure and entertainment. 

Companionship Project

Napier is working on the area of companionship. We hope to explore the role and importance of real companions such as friends, helpers and pets as well as the emergence of technology-based companionship. This knowledge should help us understand more fully what issues need to be considered in order to make technologies more friendly, approachable and usable. We would like volunteers to try out some of the current technology-based companions to see what they think of them.

Supportive Environments Project

This is a project about supporting older people to live independently at home using technology as a movement monitoring system. The project is currently taking a video, made with the Foxtrot Theatre Company, to different groups of older people and carers for discussion so that the system can be designed as well as possible by taking possible future users needs into account. This project is not part of the Utopia project but is concerned with similar issues and user groups.