Aging Population: Through The Decades

Gametize News & Updates, Learning & Development, SMU-X

1. Highlighting 6D Playbook

Define the Problem

Our problem statement is “Elderly living alone in Singapore face weak social networks, leading to poor mental health”. The elderly living alone face difficulties interacting and maintaining meaningful connections with those around them. Prolonged, this leads to poor mental health. There is a need to provide more avenues for the elderly to interact and form meaningful, lasting connections with one another.

Determine Goals

We plan to partner with an organisation to recruit 20-30 players. We aim to achieve a 60% completion rate of the programme. Ultimately, we hope to see a 20% increase in satisfaction and a 20% decrease in loneliness in their daily lives through a pre-and-post-programme numerical questionnaire. In the long run, we want to expand to more social organisations and neighbourhoods and hope to see sustained improvements in the elderly’s mental well-being.

Decide Target Behaviours and Emotions

In-App Behaviours

We want the elderly to use the app to interact with other elderly in the neighborhood. Through participating in weekly in-app activities and sharing their thoughts through comments, we hope that the elderly find joy in shared experiences and memories and build new meaningful bonds with one another. (Eg. “I enjoy the activities and conversations with my fellow friends.”)

Real Life Behaviours

Take the first step to interact with other elderly and form new friendships.
“I am excited to meet new friends and have kakis to talk to.”

Engage in frequent gatherings and meet-ups with other elderly friends.
“I am excited to have frequent meetings with my new friends where we can have coffee chats and meaningful conversations.”

Discover the power of social interaction that brings joy to their life.
“I hope to have more happiness and less loneliness.”

Target Emotions

Happiness: The elderly enjoy social interactions and look forward to the next meetup.
Reassurance: The elderly are reassured that there are friends who look out for them and care for their well-being.
Openness & trust: The elderly are more excited to meet new people, and can trust people they meet.

Describe and Profile Players

For profiling of our players, the elderly living alone are single or widowed. They maintain a small social circle if at all, usually limited to neighbours. Their daily routine revolves around activities within their homes, such as using their smartphone, watching television or reading newspapers. Despite these activities, they frequently experience loneliness and crave more conversations with people. Hence, we established the player type to be “Socializers”.

Name	Winston	Lucy	David
Age	65	73	77
Marital Status	Single	Single	Widower
Daily Life	1) Gets meals daily at the nearby hawker center 2) Watches television and reads the newspaper 3) Plays phone puzzle games in free time	1) Cooks food at home 2) Hangs outside her house to have chit-chats with neighbors 3) Plays phone puzzle games in free time	1) Takes morning walks at the nearby park 2) Gets meals from the coffee shop or when a neighbour cooks for him 3) Watches YouTube and reads the newspaper
Social Life	1) Knows some people in the neighborhood but does not engage in conversations	1) Limited to next-door neighbors 2) Monthly visits by volunteers (she looks forward to them)	1) Introverted and does not socialize much 2) Familiar with his neighbors 3) Two sons take turns to visit him every weekend with grandchildren
Medical Issues	1) High blood pressure 2) Wheelchair-bound from rheumatoid arthritis	1) High blood pressure 2) Diabetes which causes weak legs (hence does not walk for long distances)	1) Low blood pressure
Likes/Hobbies	1) Plays word search games on the phone 2) Enjoys simple day-to-day routines and meaningful conversations with people	1) Play coloring game on the phone 2) Buys 4D every fortnight 3) Likes interacting with people but is often hindered by her physical condition	1) Plays Candy Crush on iPad (big screen) 2) Spending time with grandchildren
Dislikes/Stressors	Heavy conversations such as those related to political issues	1) No one around to help when she falls 2) Occasionally feels lonely	1) Not having a confidant after the passing of his wife
Emotional Well-Being/Status	Calm and Happy	Anxious	Bored

Design Gamification Strategy

Storyline (“Through The Decades”): Players are Temporal Protectors. 6 important keystones are missing, scattered across the decades in time, and must be recovered to ensure that the flow of time remains in order. Players will complete challenges to earn the 6 keystones (badges) to correct the flow of time.

Visuals and UX

Colourful complementary colors, mainly orange and blue hues.
Focus on the game being bright and vibrant as colours are often associated with emotions. This can uplift the mood of players, and increase player immersion and engagement.
Theme: Time traveling in space.
Our main characters, Chrono-Lion, who represents our players, and Andy the Hand, who represents our team (Team Hi-Five), will be on a spaceship traveling to different decades.
The main thumbnail for each decade will contain elements we choose that are prominent in that decade.

Points System: Each week, the elderly will be tasked to complete about 7-9 challenges. Some challenges are completed during the weekly gathering with their befrienders and other elderly. There will be refreshments and goodies served during the gathering, enticing them to join and mingle with other elderly. Subsequently, they will be tasked with ‘Dabao’ challenges to complete in their own time within the week. If they manage to complete all challenges, they will be eligible to claim a reward in the subsequent gathering. Rewards can range from portable fans to selfie sticks, F&B vouchers, and even trips to Singapore attractions!

Structure/Timeline of Programme

Before The First Week
- Recruitment and check on the program’s uptake.
- Get the elderly within the precinct to be familiar with one another and their befrienders.
Weeks 1-6
1. In-person Gathering at the Start of the Week
  - Befrienders gathering with elderly
  - Befriender-elderly activities
  - Facebook activities
  - Provide refreshments to incentivize the elderly to come down for a gathering
2. Throughout the Week
  - Elderly to complete challenges among themselves (‘Dabao’ challenges)
3. The Following Week at the Next Gathering
  - Collect prizes/rewards (eg. vouchers) gained from the previous week
  - Debrief and share about the previous week’s activities.
After The Last Week: Final debrief and gathering: to ensure that all elderly have exchanged their contact details and made connections with each other. We intend for this gathering to be more of a party, with food catering involved (depending on number of participants). Encourage the elderly to maintain their relationships either in person and/or through their Facebook accounts.

Content

A different topic will be covered each week and each one features a different decade (1960s to 2010s) – a total of 6 decades.
Each topic consists of 9 challenges (only 8 for the first week).
- 4 In-Session Challenges
  - One includes a reflection of the previous week’s activities.
  - One includes a Facebook-related activity.
- 4 Out-of-Session Challenges: Challenges will be tailored to encourage elderly interaction online (via Gametize) and offline, completing them together outside of their weekly gatherings.
- 1 Mental Wellness Challenge: The purpose is to include a mental wellness activity to advocate for mental well-being.
In total, there are 8 topics (including one for Introduction and Feedback respectively) and 57 challenges.

Feedback & Rewards

There will be a challenge allocated in a separate topic to allow for participants to give their feedback.
There will be 2 types of rewards.
- Refreshments will be provided to incentivize participants to come down every week during the gathering sessions to keep them invested in the program.
- Points will be allocated for the completion of challenges, which can be used to redeem vouchers (more points will be awarded for In-Session Challenges)

Outcome

For participants to forge strong friendships with one another during and after the program: This is incentivized through regular meet-ups and the sharing of meals throughout the program.
For participants to enjoy the rewards (redemption of vouchers) after actively participating in the program.
For participants to be exposed to the benefits of social media (Facebook) in staying connected with others online.
For participants to be more aware of mental well-being and be proactive in taking care of their mental health.

Diagnose and Analyse Content

Walking Through The 6D Playbook Again:
The problem of elderly individuals living alone, having poor social networks, and therefore weaker mental health has been directly tackled with the structure and content of our game which encourages them to interact more with their peers and neighbors. This allows them to foster more relationships and be part of a social network/community, achieving our objective of mitigating mental health issues stemming from loneliness or social isolation.

Game Structure & Elements:

‘Through The Decades’ gamifies the experience of recalling and reflecting on events from our players’ past. Our primary objective of mitigating social isolation among the elderly living alone will be achieved through this process of gamification. This is because by recalling experiences that are potentially shared (as they were from the same period, and hence relatable), players can establish a deeper connection with each other. The concept of the game was overall well thought out in creating a nostalgic factor for the players. Our target audience will be able to effectively reminisce about their experiences.

Challenges:

Originally, we attempted to implement the many different challenges available on the Gametize platform. However, over-relying on the platform could potentially limit the players’ opportunities to have more meaningful interactions in person, impeding them from fostering their relationships. To elaborate, our original ideas for the challenges revolved more around a ‘Single-Player’ aspect of a game.
After reviewing, we felt the need to evoke more social interactions to effectively tackle our problem statement. Hence, we decided to utilize the Gametize platform more as a facilitation tool for the elderly’s interaction during weekly gatherings, with mostly Confirmation challenges to indicate their participation in the program.
‘Dabao’ challenges were implemented to incorporate the other Challenge features on the Gametize platform, which also encourages players to initiate meetings outside of the in-person sessions. Ultimately, the challenges aim to create more opportunities for interaction between the players.

Mental Wellness
The ‘Mental Wellness’ challenge was an idea only incorporated in the later stages of developing the game. We decided on it after realizing that we should not only focus on reminiscing. Hence, the ‘Mental Wellness’ challenge aims to emphasize the importance of mental health, provide methods to mitigate mental health issues for self and others, and provide better support to each other.

2. Inspiration for this Project

In addressing mental wellness issues among the elderly in Singapore, extensive research highlighted social isolation as a fundamental cause of mental health problems, notably depression. This often stems from a lack of durable, meaningful relationships. We focused our efforts on elderly individuals living alone, as they are most vulnerable to social isolation, due to limited daily social interactions. This underscores the broader challenge of tackling mental health issues among Singapore’s elderly population. Our initiative aims to mitigate the isolation experienced by these seniors.

Our team developed a 6-week engagement program intended to cultivate enduring connections among elderly individuals seeking companionship. This innovative program plans to assemble isolated elderly residents living alone, fostering increased interactions through organised weekly activities, gatherings, and incentivizing participation with rewards. Our objective is to create a vibrant, supportive community among participants, reducing loneliness and isolation.

Through the program, we hope to diminish social isolation among Singapore’s elderly living alone, thereby fostering enhanced mental health and overall wellness. A study by Duke-NUS revealed that the incidence of depressive symptoms increased among older Singaporeans living alone (21%) compared to their cohabitating counterparts (12.5%). The research further illuminates that robust social networks substantially mitigate depression levels, highlighting the critical role of external social connections in alleviating the impact of living alone (Linton et al., 2018). Our program, through its weekly activities, will strengthen these social networks, ensuring participants emerge with a fortified sense of community and improved mental health.

Our approach not only addresses the immediate concerns of social isolation and its repercussions on mental health but also lays the groundwork for a more interconnected and supportive elderly community in Singapore.

3. Our Learnings

Throughout the project, our team faced multiple setbacks in trying to come up with a solution to target mental wellness issues among the elderly. The greatest takeaway we gained from this project is to always delve deeper into the root of the problem before formulating solutions. In most cases, when trying to solve a problem, we immediately begin tackling the surface issue, rather than stepping back to understand and identify the deeper issues.

In our first task of producing a problem statement, we decided to have a broader statement in hopes that we could target more elderly to alleviate mental health issues. However, it was later brought to our attention that this approach may not be feasible due to the lack of targeting the root cause (and hence having solutions without lasting impact). Subsequently, we scoped down our demographic and managed to improve our solution significantly.

Another takeaway we gained was to have more user empathy. When ideating ways to utilize Gametize’s platform, we wanted to maximize the utility of the app by implementing as many game types and challenges as possible. However, after consulting our mentors and having a careful discussion, we realized that we had failed to consider the app from the elderly’s perspective. By trying to get them to use the app in as many ways as possible, we had strayed far from our goal of encouraging social interaction. Furthermore, the difficulty in understanding our original game tiering system would likely cause low retention rates. Hence, we changed our approach and tried to use the platform as a supportive tool to encourage social interaction.

Additionally, we also learned the importance of offering social incentives instead of focusing solely on monetary incentives. Initially, we planned to entice the elderly to join the program using food or supermarket coupons. However, we were made aware of how common and overused coupons (as prizes) are in Singapore. Hence, the incorporation of social or community-focused incentives became our primary appeal, followed by vouchers. We believe that creating a meaningful and long-lasting friendship is more sustainable and beneficial for the elderly, rather than monetary benefits.

1. Play the game first.

2. Use the Template game for your own initiatives.

Credits: [Megan Ho Yan Yi (Team Leader), Audrey Felicia Lay, Kong Ruotong, Koh Jia Ning, Lau Tze Hao Dominic, Lim Wei Shyan, Nigel, Santhya Thirumarai Selvan, Tan Bing Hui]