Taking a Break: Participatory Game Design
by
Joel Virothaisakun
May 2017
Presented to the
Division of Science, Information Arts and Technologies
University of Baltimore
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Master of Science
Approved by: ________________________________
[Bridget Blodgett, Thesis Advisor]
________________________________
[Greg Walsh, Committee Member]
Abstract
Anxiety is an issue that the majority of people have struggled with in their lives.
While there are many different types of treatment for anxiety, not all of them are
effective. As a society we have come to rely more on technology and our smartphones.
Combining the issues of health and technology is a new way to attempt to help alleviate
stressors that could potentially cause anxiety. This paper shows the result of a
participatory design research project aimed at creating a solution for anxiety. The
finished product being a working prototype of a game based off the research.
Table of Contents
List of Tables ...................................................................................................................... ii
List of Figures .................................................................................................................... iii
Literature Review.................................................................................................................1
Introduction ..........................................................................................................................6
Research ...............................................................................................................................7
Design Process ...................................................................................................................12
Theme 12
Mechanics ............................................................................................................. 13
Audio 14
Graphics ................................................................................................................ 15
Beta Test ............................................................................................................................17
Conclusion .........................................................................................................................18
References ..........................................................................................................................20
i
List of Tables
Table 1 Participatory Design Session Demographic.......................................................... 9
ii
List of Figures
Figure 1. Screenshot of Living Color Game Prototype
14
Figure 2. Moodboard used for design for Living Color
16
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Literature Review
Anxiety is an emotion that everyone has felt at some point in their lives. Whether
the anxiety be from an upcoming academic test, a fear of flying, or from accidentally
lighting the stove on fire, everyone knows what it is like to feel anxious. There is a
practical purpose for feeling anxiety sometimes. For example, anxiety about an upcoming
academic test might have the effect of making the student study harder. However, there
are some people that are plagued with anxiety that serves no purpose and occurs for
reasons that seem illogical to them and the ones around them. There are many different
types of remedies for an anxiety, however, more recently our level of technology has
offered options that were not available before. Mobile phones are now being considered
as a potential remedy for many different types of health issues, anxiety included. Health
and mobile are currently two thriving industries, however, the combination of these two
industries to help anxiety is still a new practice and its effectiveness is still debatable.
Anxiety is described as the feeling of nervousness, apprehension, fear, or worry
(“Anxiety Causes, Symptoms, Treatment - What are Symptoms and Signs of Anxiety?,”
n.d.). This feeling can make it extremely difficult for an individual to complete their daily
activities, and for some people it happens chronically and without cause. There are some
people who have anxiety so badly that they have difficulty leaving their house or being in
public. While most people who suffer from anxiety do not feel it to the extreme that they
are not able to leave their house, The National Health Institute says that 18% of adults
suffer from some form of anxiety disorder (“Any Anxiety Disorder Among Adults,”
n.d.).
Sometimes there is no underlying cause for anxiety, however, there are many
common reasons for why someone might feel anxiety. Some more common cause for
anxiety are stress at work, stress at school, relationship issues, drug abuse, side effects of
medication, and symptoms of a medical illness (“Anxiety Causes, Symptoms, Treatment
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- What are Symptoms and Signs of Anxiety?,” n.d.). Individuals experience anxiety
differently and have different tolerance levels before experiencing a level of anxiety that
will negatively affect their day to day life. There are also some common symptoms of
anxiety that individuals experience. Often when people reach a high level of anxiety they
will start avoiding eye contact, moving their hands and arms, constantly rebalancing,
and/or shaking their head (Miranda, Calderón, & Favela, 2014). Individuals who suffer
from chronic anxiety disorder may completely avoid situations that could cause them
anxiety, and this could prevent them from completing activities in their day to day life.
With anxiety being such a prevalent issue in our society, doctors have come up
with many ways to combat it. One of the more common ways for treating anxiety is
known as Cognitive Behavior Therapy. In Cognitive Behavior Therapy, patients log
instances where they are feeling anxious into a journal where they can later review their
fears with a professional in a more rational way (Rennert & Karapanos, 2013). When a
patient starts to analyze situations that make them feel anxious, they might start to realize
that their fears are irrational and feel less anxious in the future. However, the authors of
Mental Health App Design– A Journey From Concept to Completion argues that the
cost of this type of treatment can be expensive and out of reach of many who suffer from
anxiety (Topham, Caleb-Solly, Matthews, Farmer, & Mash, 2015).
While Cognitive Behavior Therapy is the most popular method for reducing
chronic anxiety, there are several other methods that are commonly used. The authors of
Scoop! A Movement-based Math Game Designed to Reduce Math Anxiety discusses the
use of power poses to reduce anxiety before taking a math test (Isbister, Karlesky, Frye,
& Rao, 2012). A power pose is a position that a person puts themselves in that is
supposed to increase the person’s confidence. However, there was no discussion on how
using power poses could be used for adults and in other scenarios that cause anxiety.
Another method that is commonly being used for reducing anxiety with patients who
suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is Exposure Therapy (Repetto et al., 2013). In
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Exposure Therapy, patients are put into controlled situations that give them anxiety. The
idea is that if the patient has the opportunity to experience the situation that is causing
them anxiety in a controlled setting, it will reduce the anxiety that the patient feels once
they are in this situation in the real world. While this might work for users who have a
fear of being out in public, there are many types anxiety causing situations that could not
or should not be replicated in a controlled setting.
There is some debate in the healthcare industry on whether using a smartphone
for healthcare purposes is a viable option. One the major arguments for using
smartphones for healthcare is the availability of smartphones to the public. A research
study suggests that 56% of people in the United States own a smartphone (Middelweerd,
Mollee, van der Wal, Brug, & te Velde, 2014). With so many smartphone users in our
society, using a smartphone to deliver healthcare services could increase the amount of
anxiety sufferers that can get access to healthcare solutions. Also, if there were a
smartphone application that was effective at reducing anxiety, it would be a substantially
cheaper than going to a healthcare professional. However, the effectiveness of using a
smartphone application to treat anxiety is something that has been questioned. While
many sources say that there is potential for using a smartphone to help reduce anxiety,
most of them are very careful to state that a smartphone application would not be a
replacement for seeing a healthcare professional. There has also been some discussion
that smartphone usage can actually cause anxiety and sleep issues for the user. However,
a research study conducted looking into smartphone usage found that smartphone users
only had increased anxiety and trouble sleeping if they were using their smartphone
excessively (Demirci, Akgönül, & Akpinar, 2015).
Currently there is a great deal of smartphone applications tailored towards
creating behavioral change for the user, and even some for reducing anxiety. Many health
applications try to take advantage of the smartphone’s ability to automatically collect data
(Patrick, Griswold, Raab, & Intille, 2008). For example, a smartphone application can use
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the built in GPS and accelerometer to track how much movement a user has made in
given day. The user does not have to directly input any data into the smartphone, but the
application can still reward the user for being overly active in a day, or suggest that the
user take a walk if they have been sedentary for a long period of time. Many of the
smartphone applications geared towards creating behavioral change follow this type of
format.
The majority of smartphone applications geared towards reducing anxiety attempt
to use Cognitive Behavior Therapy. Unlike with tracking physical activity, there is no
easy way to automatically track a user’s anxiety level. One smartphone application
attempts to solve this problem by using a heart rate monitor and Google Glasses (for
tracking blink patterns). In this way data can be collected automatically when a user is
feeling anxious. However, this is most likely more technology than most people would be
willing to wear on a daily basis, and is expensive (Miranda et al., 2014). This is why most
smartphone applications attempting to help users reduce anxiety involve the user
manually logging data throughout the day. Some of these applications are designed to
work in addition to in-person healthcare sessions that the user is already attending. Users
would log when they were feeling anxiety and why they were feeling anxiety, and then
discuss this with their healthcare professional. However, others smartphone applications
have attempted to make standalone applications that are meant to be used without any
healthcare professional. The makers of an application called SAM –Self help for Anxiety
Management claims that all of the existing applications for reducing anxiety attempt to
mimic in-person session with a healthcare professional. The designers for SAM are trying
to design their applications differently, and have made an application that does not mimic
in-person sessions (Topham et al., 2015). The designers of this application say that since
interactions with a smartphone are different than with a healthcare professional, that the
application needs to be designed in a way that tries to cater to this difference instead of
trying to mimic in-person sessions.
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Another field that is currently being investigated in the healthcare industry is
Serious Games. Serious Games are games designed not just for entertainment, but also to
provide some benefit to the user or general population. An example of this is a
smartphone game that looks very similar to Space Invaders and was created to help
people exercise more (Wylie & Coulton, 2008). The user plays the game as they normally
would, but when the user is not doing well the game will pause and check the user's heart
rate. If the user gets their heart rate to the designated number displayed on the screen,
they are awarded a bonus. The advantage of using a game to change a user’s behavior is
that the game can make the behavior change fun and entertaining. However, making a
Serious Game fun over a long period of time has been a struggle for game designers
(Baranowski, 2014). Serious Games generally do not have big budgets like many of the
games that are intended just for entertainment. This makes it hard for Serious Games to
compete against other types of games. However, the expectation for smartphone games is
generally lower than for console or computer games. This could make it easier for
smartphone Serious Games to compete against other games in the market.
With the amount of people who suffer from anxiety on the rise, finding new
effective ways of helping people who suffer from anxiety is increasingly important. By
using a smartphone application, or smartphone Serious Game, it could be possible to
provide relief to people who suffer from anxiety in a cheap, convenient, and efficient
way. However, figuring out how to make a smartphone application that helps users with
anxiety is not easy. There are many smartphone applications currently on the Android
and iOS markets, but research conducted on all of these applications in the Google Play
Store showed that they are lacking in effectiveness (Van Singer, Chatton, & Khazaal,
2015). While there is a large body of work dedicated to helping users with anxiety, more
time and effort needs to be spent researching how this can be brought to a smartphone
platform in a way that works.
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Introduction
Management of anxiety can feel like a full-time job for the patient or persons with
the disease. It is extremely important for someone with chronic anxiety to find healthy
methods that help them alleviate their anxiety, otherwise the anxiety could prevent them
from completing activities in their daily life. With the prevalence of smartphones in our
society being at an all-time high, the creation of a mobile application seems like the
obvious tool for helping users alleviate their anxiety. while there are already some
applications in the market that are designed specifically for this purpose, their
effectiveness for alleviating anxiety is questionable. Having the end users involved in the
creation of the mobile application will hopefully allow for the application being designed
to be more effective than the rest of the mobile applications currently in the market.
This research uses a user centered design process combined with participatory
design to try and create a mobile application that can reduce anxiety. To my knowledge,
this is the first time participatory design has been used to create a mobile application that
helps users with their anxiety. Getting the end users involved with the development of
this application as early as possible was one of the main objectives of this research. While
I did have some general ideas of what types of applications I thought would help users
alleviate their anxiety, the decision of what type of application to create was 100% based
off the applications designed in the participatory design sessions. Having the
participatory sessions as early as possible in my research allowed me the flexibility to
rapidly prototype different types of applications before starting development of the final
product. My process for creating this mobile application was split up into four main
phases: research, participatory design, prototyping, and beta testing.
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Research
Management of anxiety can feel like a full-time job for the patient or persons with
the disease. It is extremely important for someone with chronic anxiety to find healthy
methods that help them alleviate their anxiety, otherwise the anxiety could prevent them
from completing activities in their daily life. With the prevalence of smartphones in our
society being at an all-time high, the creation of a mobile application seems like the
obvious tool for helping users alleviate their anxiety. while there are already some
applications in the market that are designed specifically for this purpose, their
effectiveness for alleviating anxiety is questionable. This research uses a user centered
design process combined with participatory design to try and create a mobile application
that can reduce anxiety more effectively than any that have previously been made. My
process for creating this mobile application was split up into four main phases: research,
participatory design, prototyping, and beta testing.
Participatory design is a method for conducting research that pairs the stake
holders with the end users. Using this method, the end user is able to add input to how a
product is made and effect the product’s design. Using participatory design can help
designers better understand the needs of the end user of the product. “The passion I have
for [participatory design] methods is due to my belief that the best way to solve problems
is to enable the affected groups to work directly with those that can craft a solution” said
Greg Walsh, a professor at the University of Baltimore and a proponent for participatory
design (“Greg Walsh - Research,” n.d.). While the end user may have the ability to
influence the final design of a product in participatory design, it should be noted that the
final design decisions are still with the stake holder. Participatory design is one of the
tools that researchers can use to better make products for users.
The initial research phase was used for gathering information about existing
methods that are being used for relieving anxiety, specifically in the technology industry.
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There is already quite a large amount of mobile applications that are being designed to
reduce a user's anxiety. It was important to review these applications to determine the
strengths and weaknesses of what is currently out in the market. A review of topics in the
fields of behavioral change, mobile application design, and participatory design is also
part of this initial research phase. This research helped guide the participatory design
sessions so that I could be sure that the designs were moving in an appropriate direction.
Participatory design sessions were the basis for how I decided what type of
mobile application to create, and how the design of the application was created. Here is
an outline for how the group participatory design sessions were run:
1.
Demographic collection form
2.
Explanation of session
3.
Discussion: Identify important features
4.
Design: Paper Prototype
5.
Discussion: Prioritize features
6.
Design: Design/Revise Paper Prototype
7.
Discussion: Final thoughts
In total, 6 sessions were run with 2-3 people in each session. All of the
participants used their phones frequently throughout the day. 100% of the users used their
phones for email, social media, and messaging at least once a day. 60% of the users used
their phones for news and to play video games at least once a day. Having only
participants that used their phones frequently was a deliberate decision for this research.
Participants who frequently use their mobile devices will be more familiar with the
platform, and therefore more prepared to design for it. All but two of the users were
iPhone users, the rest were Android users. There were no users who preferred Windows
or Blackberries. This research was instrumental for me determining the type of
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applications that should be created as part of the prototyping face. While there were many
different applications that were designed in the sessions, all of the applications seemed to
fall into 3 categories: Journaling, organization, and video gaming. A demographic
questionnaire was given to all users who participated in the participatory design sessions
(see Table 1).
Table 1
Participatory Design Session Demographic
Responses
Age
30 years (average)
Gender
70% Female
30% Male
Education
75% Some College
25% College Degree
25% High School
Daily Mobile User
100%
Operating System
87.5% iPhone
12.5 Android
Mobile Used For
100% Email
100% Social Media
100% Messaging
62.5% News
62.5% Games
A journaling application was the most obvious method for handling anxiety that
the participants suggested. This is a method that doctors currently use for helping
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patients, so it makes sense that this type of application would come up a lot in the
participatory design sessions. The idea behind a journaling application is that users would
log when they were feeling anxious and the cause of their anxiety. They would then be
able to track trends and potentially avoid situations that might cause them anxiety in the
future. One participant suggested that this application could send notifications to the user
reminding them to log throughout the day. This user wanted the application to not only
track things that made the user anxious, but also things that made the user relaxed. The
application would then suggest activities for the user to do based on their activity. It was
also discussed that the notifications should be “Soft Notifications” that were not too
obtrusive to the user. The participants believe that the notifications could potentially
increase the user’s anxiety, so the notifications should not make noise or take up too
much space on the screen. Another participant suggested that the application could track
the user’s sleeping patterns. The notifications could then be scheduled around when the
user wakes up and goes to sleep, and the sleep data would be another metric for the
application to use to measuring a user’s anxiety level. Another interesting feature that
was suggested is that the application would suggest an activity based on how the user was
feeling. If a user was feeling anxious, the app might suggest to the user to call a friend or
family member. If the user was feeling relaxed, the app might suggest that the user do
something productive, like cleaning their house. Currently there are quite a few different
journaling mobile applications currently in the market. Many of them have had medical
professionals in the field helping them design the application. If I were to make an
application like this, I would also want to have professionals consult on the design of the
application. Since this is out of the scope of this project, I decided to create another type
of mobile application.
Many of the participants of my research said that organizing things reduced their
anxiety. There were 2 types of organization mobile applications that the participants
suggested. One was a mobile application that helped the user organize their day to day
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life. This application could give daily, weekly, monthly, or annual notifications to remind
the user to complete a specific task. The application would also suggest dates for these
notifications. If a user already has a lot of notifications on a specific date, it would
suggest that the reminder be given on the next day. Also, if a task does not get completed,
the application will suggest a new reminder date for this task. One participant suggested
that the tasks could have a priority level that could be associated to them. Then the
application would automatically have high priority tasks reminded to the user first.
Another participant suggested that the organization application give rewards to the user
for completing tasks. This would be in an attempt to keep the user motivated to complete
their tasks. The application would also be able to generate a random task for the user, if
the user did not have any tasks to complete on that day. Another type of organization
mobile application that was suggested was allowing the user to organize items on the
phone itself. This could be organization shapes, colors, or numbers. One participant
suggested that she would like a mobile application that allowed her to organize a digital
messy room, or closet. This is an activity that she would regularly do to relieve her
anxiety. While an organization application has a lot of promise, there are even more
organization mobile applications in the market than journaling applications so I decided
against created this type of application.
Almost every single participant in my research said that they either played a
videogame at some point to reduce their anxiety, or that they do regularly. The reasoning
behind this is that all of the users wanted to be distracted when they felt anxiety. A
distraction was the main theme for most of the mobile applications that users came up
with in the participatory design sessions. Other suggestions that were not part of the three
main categories that I cover in my research were social media, news, or any type of
activity on the mobile phone that distracted the user from the environment that they were
in. The participants had a lot of different types of mobile video games that they would
want to play to reduce their anxiety, but there were a lot of familiar themes between their
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designs. Sound was very important part of the games that the participants designed. A lot
of emphasis was put on the music that would be played in the background. The music
should have a calming effect on the user, and should not produce any kind of anxiety.
The sound effects should be designed in the same way. While the sound should notify the
user of his or her actions, it should do so with a sound effect that was also relaxing. Even
if the action taken by the user was negative in the game. One participant said that the
sound should make the user laugh. They suggested that the game should have the sounds
of babies laughing, because this is a sound that made them laugh every time they heard it.
Another participant said that the music should be something that she could sing along
too, because singing is something that they did to reduce their anxiety. The game that the
participants design also had a lot of emphasis on the visual aspect of the game being as
soothing as possible. All of the colors should have a calming effect on the users. One of
the participants also suggested that the game not have any hard edges for any of the
shapes in the game. With so many of my participants already playing games to reduce
their anxiety, it makes sense to create a game with this objective in mind.
Design Process
Theme
While coming up with the theme of this game I decided that I did not want the
theme to suggest that it was a game for reducing anxiety, even though the game is being
designed specifically for that purpose. The reasoning behind this is that none of the
participants that I spoke with, or people that I spoke with outside of my research, had
ever played a game that was themed as a game that reduced anxiety. I was not able to
determine why people with anxiety would not try to play a game that might reduce their
anxiety, there are quite a few games available in the market. It is possible that the thought
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of downloading a game that might reference anxiety while you are playing it seemed
unappealing. This lead me to come up with the game Living Color. The idea around
Living Color is that the world that was once full of color, but color has come alive and is
on the run. It is the objective of the player to catch all of the color, and bring color back
to the world.
Mechanics
In the game Living Color, the player controls an object in the center of the screen
in the shape of the letter “C”. The player can move in a 360-degree motion by moving his
or her thumb on the left or right side of the screen. A large amount of time was spent on
the controls for the player. The intention is that the game is as easy to learn as possible. In
the participator design session, a participate said “I like playing simple mindless games
when I’m anxious”. The method for controlling the player is similar to that of how a
person drives a car. The player rotates counter clockwise if the player moves their left
thumb down or right thumb up on the screen, and the player rotates clockwise of the
player moves their left thumb up or their right thumb down. The player is instructed to
play the game with both thumbs on the screen at the same time. While this is not required
for the user to play, the user can actually move the player faster by using both thumbs at
the same time. Since the player itself is in the shape of a circle, just like a steering wheel,
this gives some affordance to the player for how the player should be control. It is my
hope that the controls being easy as possible will reduce any anxiety from having to learn
how to play the game.
As the player rotates in the center, colored objects moved towards the player.
These colored objects are how the point system for the game works. The player can either
collect these objects by letting the object into the opening of the player, or avoid
collecting the object by letting it bounce off the side of the player. The player must
collect the same color object as the center color of the player. As the player collects the
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correct colors, color starts to return to the background. The movement of the objects to
the player were designed to be easy to catch, especially in the early rounds of the game. It
would have been possible to create objects that move in more random seeming paths
towards the player, however, making the objects too hard to track could have made the
game too anxiety producing. In the first 5 levels, there is no lose scenario. A participant
during the participatory design sessions suggested that the game not have any lose
scenario at all. However, I believe that this type of game would not keep the attention of
the user for long without a lose scenario to challenge them. Below is a screenshot of the
final prototype that was created.
Figure 1. Screenshot of Living Color Game Prototype
Audio
The music for Living Color was produced specifically for creating a feeling of
calmness from the person listening to it. Many of the participants in the participatory
design sessions said that listening to music was a method that they used to relieve their
anxiety. The participants’ responses for what type of music best alleviated their anxiety
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varied based on their personal preferences of music. One participant said “Any music that
I can sing along with helps my anxiety”. However, several participants claimed that
natural sounds helped them the most. Examples of natural sounds were sounds of the
beach and the sound of rain. The music from Living Color incorporates these natural
sounds in attempt to create a composition that is soothing to the user. A lot of time was
also spent on what type of sound effects to use while playing the game as well. The sound
for when a user collects an object is the sound of a water drop. This is in an attempt to
incorporate more relaxing natural sounds into the game. Something that was difficult to
decide on was what sound effect to use when a user collects the wrong object. Since this
is a negative action, I wanted to convey this with the sound without using a sound that
caused any additional anxiety. The sound of several piano keys is the sound that is
currently being used. This sound is soothing enough to not cause anxiety, and is different
enough from the water drop sound to be distinguishable by the user.
Graphics
All of the graphics for Living Color were designed in a way that would reduce
anxiety for the user. A great deal of time was spent deciding on the color palette to use
for the game. In a participatory design session, a user said “The colors in the game should
be calming…”. According to an article written by the 1st Web Design team, the color
blue has calming properties (The Psychology of Colors in Web Design). This is why the
base color of the entire game is a vibrant blue. The color red was avoided because it has
been known to evoke a strong emotional response. Below is a moodboard that was
created to help define the art style of Living Color.
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Figure 2. Moodboard used for design for Living Color
The shapes of the objects themselves were also designed in a way that should be
soothing to the user. All of the objects in the game are circles and have soft edges. The
animation for the collectible objects themselves is meant to somewhat resemble that of
water. This animation parallels the idea that natural sounds can be calming to users. Since
we are already using the sound of the beach in the music, the animation of the objects
resembling water is supposed to reinforce this calming effect.
The last graphical element that is meant to calm the player is the background.
There were several participants of the participatory design session that created drawing
mobile applications. These participants said that coloring had a calming effect on them,
and that it reduced their anxiety. While the user is not actually coloring the background in
Living Color, color is appearing on the screen as a direct result of the user's action. It is
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my thought that this coloring of the background will have the same calming effect that
the participants were experiencing from coloring in real life, or at least a small calming
effect.
Beta Test
Once the prototype had been created it was released on the iPhone market as a
closed beta test and on the Android market as an open beta test. Unfortunately,
participation to the beta test of Living Color was low, so only qualitative data could be
pulled. All of the participants to the beta test found the game soothing, and a good
distraction from the things that were causing them anxiety. One user said “The music was
calming. As long as you're doing well, you continue to get positive reinforcement as
more color is revealed. If you make an error, you simply start over, making it pressurefree”. Only one user said that their anxiety level had not decreased while they were
playing the game. Participants thought that the music and slow pace of the game to be the
most soothing aspects of it. “The lack of timer and simplicity of the game play were a
great joy” said one of the participants who enjoyed the fact that there was no timer, and
the game could be played at the user’s pace. While all of the users did enjoy the game, it
seems like the majority of them thought that the game was too slow. When asked how the
game could be improved, a user said: “More distractions maybe. Although that might not
help anxiety”. The participants thought that the game would be more distracting if there
were more objects on the screen at one time, or if there were more actions that the user
could take. While one participant recognized that this might actually increase their level
of anxiety level while playing the game, most of the participants believe that it would
reduce their anxiety more if they were more distracted and engaged with the game.
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Conclusion
This research project has taught me a lot about anxiety, and how people cope with
it differently. Some people prefer to listen to loud fast paced rap music and play
videogames, while others prefer to listen to classical music and organize their room. Both
these methods seem very different, but after my research it seems clear what people want
when they feel anxious. They want to be distracted. While I cannot say whether this is the
best long term solution to the problem of anxiety, it does seem to help in the now. Living
Color shows a lot of promise for being able to distract users and reduce the user’s anxiety
in the moment, and I believe the idea of using a game for this purpose has merit.
While there was a great deal of useful information gained from this research, there
are some areas where additional resources would have been useful. With just one person
running the participatory design sessions, the moderator also had to be the note taker.
This meant that the moderator had to occasionally slow down the participants’
discussions in order to gather as much feedback as possible from the participants.
Another shortcoming to the research was the lack of demographic variation in
participants to the participatory design sessions. While it was the intention during
recruitment to only have frequent smartphone users, all of the users were between 27 and
33 and from the same general geographic location. Having a wider demographic range
could have yielded a wider variety of mobile application concepts.
Perhaps my one fault when designing Living Color was that I spent so much time
thinking of ways to make the game soothing to the user, and not enough time thinking of
ways to distract the user. That being said, I think by simply tweaking the design strategy
to focus more on making the game more engaging would solve this problem. When
designing a game that is supposed to reduce the user's anxiety it is important to keep
color, shape, and the player’s interactions in mind. These are elements that can quickly
change a person’s mental state if used correctly, or incorrectly. I believe this research can
© 2017 Joel Virothaisakun
Taking A Break: Participatory Game Design
19
help game designers determine how to use these elements to get the desired reaction out
of the user.
© 2017 Joel Virothaisakun
Taking A Break: Participatory Game Design
20
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© 2017 Joel Virothaisakun