Participatory Game Design for the INTERACCT Serious Game for Health

In this paper we present results from our user-centered and participative design approach using methods from design thinking and explorative design with school children aged 8-14 in context with a game created for children after cancer treatment. After stem-cell transplantation, pediatric patients must remain in aftercare due to a high risk of suffering from a plethora of life threatening organic problems. In this phase, communication with the clinicians is key for an increased survival probability. The multidisciplinary INTERACCT aims at developing a child friendly communication tool based on gamification principles in order to foster this important communication and should stimulate physiotherapy exercises and treatment compliance. Finally, through analyzing gaming scores, INTERACCT should also act as a sensor for detecting problematic phases children are going through. Since the design of INTERACCT is key to its success, the results presented here act as important guidelines for designing the game world. The results of the evaluation are are game characters and story lines, which will provide starting points for creating the INTERACCT game world and which shall be subject to a future validation with sick children.