Development of a Serious Game App (Digimenz) for Patients With Dementia: Prospective Pilot Study for Usability Testing in Inpatient Treatment and Long-Term Care

Our results indicated a positive association between serious game usage and well-being in patients with dementia, given adequate support. This is a valuable addition to the understanding of serious game usage in dementia care. Although challenging, user-centered development of serious games with people who are severely impaired by dementia is an important research target. Limitations like low data quality and a simplified design are inherent in this study population. Nevertheless, we demonstrated how usability testing in this target group is possible through careful definition and operationalization. The inclusion of different data sources, different recruitment sites, and different levels of cognitive impairment increased the generalizability of the findings. To accommodate severely impaired patients, future developments should incorporate a broader range of difficulties and adaptations to group settings.