Research Article
Dance Mat Fun - A Participatory Design of Exergames for Children with Disabilities
@INPROCEEDINGS{10.1007/978-3-031-34586-9_34, author={Gon\`{e}alo Roxo and Rui N\^{o}brega and Rui Neves Madeira}, title={Dance Mat Fun - A Participatory Design of Exergames for Children with Disabilities}, proceedings={Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare. 16th EAI International Conference, PervasiveHealth 2022, Thessaloniki, Greece, December 12-14, 2022, Proceedings}, proceedings_a={PERVASIVEHEALTH}, year={2023}, month={6}, keywords={Exergames Physiotherapy Children with special needs Participatory design Low-cost controllers Dance mat}, doi={10.1007/978-3-031-34586-9_34} }- Gonçalo Roxo
Rui Nóbrega
Rui Neves Madeira
Year: 2023
Dance Mat Fun - A Participatory Design of Exergames for Children with Disabilities
PERVASIVEHEALTH
Springer
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-34586-9_34
Abstract
Physiotherapy can lead to a long and tedious process where the progress of rehabilitation is usually not immediately visible. Exergames introduce a fun factor to the therapy while keeping rehabilitation as the primary goal, promoting patient engagement to foster adherence to therapy. This paper presents a participatory design of exergames for children with disabilities. We intended to explore the interaction with dance mats as a means of promoting rehabilitation and therapy adherence using a fun and low-cost off-the-shelf device for interaction. The games are designed to be adaptable, with different degrees of speed, difficulty and modality. Using the mat, the children can play standing up, seated or laying down. We worked with a rehabilitation clinic center for children to create a suite of exergames following a design thinking methodology, benefiting from the collaboration between developers, therapists, and patients. Therapists and children participated actively in the process design to help us create games suited to their needs. We present the participatory design process with focus on the user study that provides important insights on what works for certain groups of children with disabilities.
