JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

In the context of global aging, cognitive decline among older adults has become a prevalent issue, significantly impacting their daily lives. Serious games, particularly serious card games, have demonstrated potential in enhancing cognitive abilities in this population. However, most existing serious games designed for older adults rely heavily on visual interfaces, which are often potentially detrimental for those with pre-existing visual impairments.

Objective:

This study aims to design a theoretical prototype for a haptic- driven serious card game based on the Design-Play-Experience (DPE) framework. The primary objectives are to improve cognitive abilities in older adults and mitigate issues related to visual impairment. By integrating haptic feedback technology with card game mechanics, this research explores an innovative theoretical design framework intended to reduce visual dependence and promote effective cognitive training.

Methods:

This study employed the DPE framework to systematically construct a theoretical prototype for a serious card game targeting older adults. The framework's three dimensions—Design, Play, and Experience—were integrated with haptic feedback technology. The Design dimension focused on enhancing attention, logical reasoning, and decision-making through progressive tasks and a haptic symbol system, while also reducing visual reliance. The Play dimension incorporated a dynamic difficulty adjustment mechanism to align game challenges with the user's cognitive level. The Experience dimension aimed to foster emotional engagement and social belonging via achievement systems and social interactions. Technically, haptic feedback was implemented using cost-effective and universally available built-in vibration motors in mobile devices. Furthermore, the proposed framework and user interface designs underwent preliminary validation through a structured expert review process involving four specialists in geriatric education, game design, and human-computer interaction.

Results:

Guided by the DPE framework, this study produced a detailed design blueprint for a haptically enhanced serious card game. This blueprint explicitly incorporated a haptic symbol system and strictly adhered to accessible design guidelines to minimize visual dependence. The expert review provided strong preliminary validation, with quantitative results indicating high approval ratings for interface accessibility (mean score = 4.50) and the integration of haptic feedback to reduce visual overload (mean score = 4.25). Experts also recognized the potential of proposed game mechanics, such as dynamic difficulty adjustment and narrative-driven haptic metaphors, for maintaining user engagement and fostering emotional immersion. These findings confirm the framework's feasibility and offer a reusable, theoretically grounded model for developing serious games that concurrently address cognitive stimulation and visual impairment in older adults.

Conclusions:

The systematic application of the DPE framework demonstrates the potential of haptic technology to alleviate visual processing demands and enhance cognitive function in older adults. The positive expert evaluation offers preliminary evidence for the framework's validity. Future research should prioritize empirical user testing to verify these findings and explore the integration of emerging haptic tools to further improve accessibility.