Game Interaction Design for Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a disease that affects millions of elderly people and their families around the world, with clinical manifestations that include memory impairment, olfactory deficits, mental retardation, and personality changes. However, public understanding and awareness of the disease is still limited. This study aims to increase public awareness of the disease through game interaction design that allows players to experience the daily dilemmas of AD patients in a vivid way. The study adopts multi-faceted research methods such as offline interviews, questionnaires and observation methods to organize the pathological characteristics and patterns of this type of patients, which provides a basis for the design of game levels. This study shows the daily life dilemmas of patients through game simulations of the challenges faced by AD patients in the kitchen, such as the inability to recognize ingredients, confusion of taste, and visual illusions, so that players can more intuitively feel the symptoms and experiences of the patients. The user study used a questionnaire to collect feedback on players' knowledge of AD prior to the experience and their experiences after the experience. Based on the questionnaire results, it was explored whether, through game interaction, participants could empathize with people withADand gain a deeper understanding of the symptoms and mechanisms of the disease after playing the game. The results demonstrate the game's potential to increase awareness and understanding of AD by portraying the reality of patients' real-life dilemmas, thereby generating empathy and concern. While existing research has focused on service and product design for AD patients and caregivers, the use of games for disease education has been less explored. This study offers a novel approach to AD education, highlighting the role of games in spreading awareness and fostering social empathy.