The adoption of a serious game to foster interaction between the elderly and the youth

The number of lonely elderly is growing. Young people could provide part of the solution for this problem by spending more time with the elderly but negative intergenerational perceptions prevent this and create a generational gap. Serious gaming has the potential to develop positive intergenerational perceptions as shared leisure activities and improve health and well-being of elderly. Therefore the research question for this paper is what factors are essential for the adoption of a serious game to bring elderly and youth together? The qualitative study conducted 36 interviews amongst elderly (above 65) and youth (below 25) applying the USE IT interview protocol. The theoretical value of this paper found 13 design factors, from which five factors were found to correspond with the interviews: Weighing of different motivations young and old; Need for a learning component; Options for a short game; Ease of Use and Communication and nature of social interaction. The empirical study also found that the awareness of intergenerational games is very low and must be addressed. The games must be fun and secure and be available on a multiplatform in the browser so computers are not excluded.