Author:	Georg Henning
Supervisor:	Prof. Gudrun Klinker
Advisor:	Christian Eichhorn, M.Sc.
Submission Date:	15.05.2020

Abstract

With our aging society, a growing number of people are diseased with dementia leading to increasing costs in nursing. Since there is no cure for this disease, the only possibility to better the condition of the patients is to slow down and fight the symptoms. In this work, a multiplayer quiz application is developed specially designed for that target audience. The app will focus on improving the social connections of the players. Therefore, multiple users will play on a single device cooperatively, while a game master leads through the game. Further, two virtual companions will help to motivate the players. For development, multiple design and motivation guidelines are used to take the special needs of people with dementia into consideration. After finishing the development, a scenario-based evaluation is executed to check the usability features of the application.

Implementation

QUAD (Quiz Application for people with Dementia) was developed using the Unity game engine (version 2019.3.5f1). Ubi-Interact by Unknown User (no68tap) was used for device communication. QUAD consists of two parts: The player view, which should be used on Android devices, and the master view for Windows to be displayed on a big screen during the game session. The following video shows how QUAD is used: How to use QUAD

Look and game design of QUAD are based on TV-shows like "Wer wird Millionär?". Questions can have one of four different media types: Text, Picture, Audio, Video.

Conclusion

In this thesis, a Serious Game in the form of a multiplayer quiz application for people with dementia called QUAD was developed. The design process followed multiple design and motivation guidelines found in the literature. One goal of QUAD was to enhance the social connections of the users to counter secondary symptoms of the dementia disease. Therefore, it was designed to be used in activity sessions with a game master to lead through the game. For game master and users, different views were developed, each optimized for its purpose. As the central element of motivation, besides the fun playing together, two digital companions were used. Further, questions were designed to trigger memories from the past and good feelings.

Since the current situation made the planned evaluation in a care center impossible, a scenario-based assessment method was used. Therefore, the SALUTA method was chosen with the help of multiple reviews about evaluation methods. The evaluation showed that following design guidelines during development could overall lead to good support of usability in the final product. However, the assessment was restricted to those usability factors leaving aspects like question difficulty or motivational factors open. Further evaluations, as planned in firsthand, could be a good starting point for future work.