Abstract
Acquired brain injury patients often report navigation impairments. A cognitive rehabilitation therapy has been designed in the form of a serious game. The aim of the serious game is to aid patients in the development of compensatory navigation strategies by providing exercises in 3D virtual environments on their home computers. The objective of this study was to assess the usability of three critical gaming attributes: movement control in 3D virtual environments, instruction modality and feedback timing. Thirty acquired brain injury patients performed three tasks in which objective measures of usability were obtained. Mouse controlled movement was compared to keyboard controlled movement in a navigation task. Text-based instructions were compared to video-based instructions in a knowledge acquisition task. The effect of feedback timing on performance and motivation was examined in a navigation training game. Subjective usability ratings of all design options were assessed using questionnaires. Results showed that mouse controlled interaction in 3D environments is more effective than keyboard controlled interaction. Patients clearly preferred video-based instructions over text-based instructions, even though video-based instructions were not more effective in context of knowledge acquisition and comprehension. No effect of feedback timing was found on performance and motivation in games designed to train navigation abilities. Overall appreciation of the serious game was positive. The results provide valuable insights in the design choices that facilitate the transfer of skills from serious games to real-life situations.
Highlights
Serious games are games that are designed for a primary purpose other than entertainment (Michael and Chen, 2005)
We have developed a serious game for the rehabilitation of spatial navigation impairments after acquired brain injury
The importance of responsive controls in serious games has been identified by several guidelines and frameworks concerned with usability (Pinelle et al, 2008)
Summary
Serious games are games that are designed for a primary purpose other than entertainment (Michael and Chen, 2005). The key concept of serious gaming is the implementation of game attributes and game mechanisms to engage users toward achieving real-life goals. While many of these game attributes and mechanics are adapted from the entertainment video games, their underlying concepts correspond well to ideas originating in fields such as behaviorism, Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org van der Kuil et al. Serious Games in Cognitive Rehabilitation constructivism, and neuroscience (Yusoff et al, 2009). Cognitive and behavioral deficits resulting from acquired brain injury have a profound effect on many daily life activities of these patients (Fann et al, 1995). The combination of hometraining, repetition of exercises, and high treatment costs provide interesting opportunities for innovative approaches such as serious gaming in rehabilitation
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