A systematic approach for designing an elderly-friendly virtual reality storytelling application

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) can be useful in efforts aimed at improving the well-being of older members of society. The work presented aims to provide elderly people with a user-friendly and enjoyable VR application incorporating memory recall and storytelling activities that can promote mental awareness so that negative side effects associated with brain inactivity could be prevented. To fulfill the aim of the thesis, a multi-phase methodological framework was adopted. The first phase of the approach involves a thorough literature review aiming at understanding the physical and mental limitations of the elderly population that often prevent them from using state-of-the-art technologies like VR. Furthermore, existing VR applications that target the elderly population were reviewed. During the second phase of the approach, the reactions of elders towards existing applications were investigated, enabling the derivation of conclusions related to the factors that should guide the design of elderly-friendly contemporary applications. Based on the conclusions derived from the first two phases, a prototype VR application was developed. The application allows users to enter a storytelling experience where they have the chance to describe the contents of photographs showing places from their childhood. The primary application was evaluated so that main areas requiring improvement were defined. During the fourth phase, a number of design factors were further explored allowing the improvement of the proposed application. A key factor that emerged from this process was the need to introduce a virtual audience that listens to the stories presented by elderly users and interacts with the user, maximizing in that way the storytelling experience for elder users. The last two phases of the methodology concerned the development and evaluation of the final application. The evaluation aimed to determine whether older people are willing to use the proposed VR application and whether they believe it can help to improve their well-being and reduce the effects of loneliness and social isolation. The results show that elderly users are positive about using such an application in daily life, as a means of improving their overall well-being. Furthermore, as part of the work, a number of design guidelines for VR applications for elderly users were derived. The overall work carried out, can contribute to the efforts of modern societies to support the elderly population.