Recommendations on the Design of Serious Games for People with Dementia

Dementia is a progressive syndrome affecting cognition, motor abilities and behavior. Serious games are an emerging treatment alternative but benefits have not been found for people with dementia yet. One reason may be that serious games were not well adapted. The purpose of this article is to give informed recommendations on the design and implementation of serious games for people with dementia that future studies can apply and thus may find significant effects. The methodology applied was deriving information from existing literature in combination with experience from personal work in the field. Main findings are: implementation of well-contrasting icons; first-person game perspective; gesture control; personalized game content; combination of only one cognitive and one motor skill; implementation as supervised group activity. In conclusion, the recommendations are a novelty and represent a profound guidance in the design and implementation of serious games for people with dementia.