RESUMEN
Restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic significantly affected people's opportunities to engage in activities that are meaningful to their lives. In response to these constraints, many people, including older adults, turned to digital technologies as alternative ways to pursue meaningful activities. These technology-mediated activities, however, presented new challenges for older adults' everyday use of technology. In this paper, we investigate how older adults used digital technologies for meaningful activities during COVID-19 restrictions. We conducted in-depth interviews with 40 older adults and analyzed the interview data through the lens of self-determination theory (SDT). Our analysis shows that using digital technologies for meaningful activities can both support and undermine older people's three basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. We argue that future technologies should be designed to empower older adults' content creation, engagement in personal interests, exploration of technology, effortful communication, and participation in beneficent activities. © 2023 ACM.
RESUMEN
Increasing numbers of people have turned to playing boardgames with physically distant friends and family via technological tools, particularly since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, commercial hybrid digital boardgames (HDBs) are designed for co-located, rather than distanced, play and there is a need for more specific tools to support hybrid game design. This paper introduces the SMeFT Decks, a set of card decks to aid in the design of HDBs for distanced play, which support Story, Mechanism, Function and Technology. We describe the use of these cards for design ideation and demonstrate four game concepts for distanced play stemming from the use of these decks in participatory workshops. We report evaluative feedback from a pilot study and from 46 participants who used these cards across nine design workshops and reflect on what we learned from observing this process. Results suggest that the SMeFT Decks are a productive ideation tool for aiding in the design of HDBs for distanced play in collaborative workshop settings. © 2022 ACM.
RESUMEN
Restrictions arising from the COVID-19 pandemic have limited opportunities for older people to participate in face-to-face organised social activities. Many organisations moved these activities online, but little is known about older adults' experiences of participating in those activities. This paper reports an investigation of older adults' experiences of participating in social activities that they used to attend in-person, but which were moved online because of strict lockdown restrictions. We conducted in-depth interviews with 40 older adults living independently (alone or with others). Findings from a reflexive thematic analysis show that online social activities were important during the pandemic for not only staying connected to other people but also helping older adults stay engaged in meaningful activities, including arts, sports, cultural, and civic events. Online activities provided older adults with opportunities to connect with like-minded people;share care, encouragement, and support;participate in civic agendas;learn knowledge and develop new skills;and experience entertainment, distraction, and mental stimulation. Our participants had diverse perceptions of the transition from in-person to online social activities. Based on the findings, we present a taxonomy of multi-layered meaningful activities for older adults' digital social participation and highlight implications for future technology design. © 2022 ACM.
RESUMEN
More than 18 months after it was first identified, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to restrict researchers' opportunities to conduct research in face-to-face settings. This affects studies requiring participants to be co-located, such as those that examine the play of multiplayer boardgames. We present two methods for observing the play of boardgames at a distance, supported by two case studies. We report on the value and use of both methods, and reflect on five core concepts that we observed during the studies: data collection and analysis, recruitment and participation, the temporality of play, the sociality of play and material engagement, and the researcher's role in the study. This work highlights the different considerations that online studies generate when compared to in-person play and other study methods. Future work will present an in-depth discussion of the findings of these studies and present recommendations for the adoption of these distinct methods. © 2021 Owner/Author.