Development and Evaluation of Embodied Metaphors for Exergame Design: Considering Older Adults’ Bodily Experiences and Individual Perceptions

Exergames are suggested to improve older adults’ adherence to physical activity (PA) and thus greatly benefit their physical functions and well-being. Considering that older adults can face great challenges when mapping the in-put action with the exergame response, embodied metaphors have been proposed to facilitate their understanding of the gamification concept through their past bodily experiences of another activity. However, metaphorical mapping varies significantly among senior players due to individual differences and variation in technology experiences. This study therefore first carried out a focus group with four older adults to develop a variety of embodied metaphors by identifying their stereotypes of metaphorical mappings between the targeted PA movements and their past bodily experiences. Then, an online survey study was conducted among fifty-six older adults to evaluate the proposed metaphors based on their individual perceptions, including affective responses, perceived familiarity, and degrees of motion matching. This study revealed the importance of considering older adults’ bodily experiences and individual preferences when designing exergames. Bodily experiences relating to every-day lives, entertainment and sports, things and animals, and childhood memories were frequently reported as embodied metaphors in the older adults’ stereotypes of metaphorical mappings. The results suggest that the embodied metaphors relating to older adults’ childhood games, such as rubber band skipping and shuttlecock, are the best choices to facilitate older adults’ understanding of the targeted PA movements in exergame design. Furthermore, the study identified the necessity to involve older adults in the early stage of exergame development by using various user-centered research methods.