Ana Veloso

University of Aveiro | UA · Department of Communication and Art

Las nuevas tecnologías han contribuido a una mayor autonomía de las personas con discapacidad y a la reducción de su brecha tecnológica a partir de la adquisición de competencias digitales, mejorando así su dignidad de vida y los propios valores sociales inclusivos. También continúa existiendo una brecha entre la identidad personal y la construcció...

Las nuevas tecnologías han contribuido a una mayor autonomía de las personas con discapacidad (Pacheco et al., 2019) y a la reducción de su brecha tecnológica a partir de la adquisición de competencias digitales, mejorando así su dignidad de vida y los propios valores sociales inclusivos (Ragnedda, 2017; Berghs et al., 2019). También continúa exis...

The growing use of digital platforms among older adults has brought increased challenges to the design and development process, thus requiring considering age-related needs and changes. Nonetheless, a growing body of research suggests that different types of applications of digital platforms, i.e., digital games, can foster new opportunities to enc...

The rise of ageing population, alongside with the use of digital technology by older adults, brings new challenges to the development of digital solutions for this target audience. Online communities and digital games can be seen as examples of increasingly popular digital contexts within older adults, while playing an important role in promoting a...

The ageing population is increasing at an exponential rate, with senior citizens representing a disadvantaged group in threat of both social and digital marginalization. The potential of gerontechnology combined with immersive technologies, such as virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality, may enable active and healthy ageing while enh...

The effects of horse riding are well recognized, as it brings physical and psychological benefits to individuals of all ages. Consequently, it has been used for curative and therapeutic purposes, commonly known as hippotherapy. Moreover, researchers have proven that adding virtual reality (VR) to traditional treatment methods has a huge positive im...

The aging of the world population and growing increase in the number of information and communication technology users have posited great challenges in addressing interface design and finding strategies for fostering their online participation. Although the benefits and recommendations for developing online communities for active ageing have been w...

Characters are the interface throughout most of the players’ experience many digital games. In digital games, the Playable Character faces a problem that generates conflict lived by the player who is willing to spend time and energy to experience a breach of the character's life as if it were their own. The present research paper aims to describe s...

Over the past few decades, digital game audiences have increased, gaining relevance and weight in popular culture, and with this, the stereotype of the person who plays digital games as if these persons belong to a separate social world. In popular slang, a Player is sometimes called a “gamer”.In this paper, the systematization of the data collecte...

This paper explores digital multitasking during lectures for university students, attending to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Digital multitasking is conceptualized in this research as engaging in a digital task (T1) during academic lectures (T2). This paper has three main goals: 1. Analyze the variations in digital multitasking in three diff...

In times of social confinement frequently associated with COVID-19 pandemics, an increasing dependence of aged populations on digital media to maintain social interactions and participation in society was observed. Although courses for action on the access to digital media by aged populations and the potential harms of digital inclusion have been a...

Games are engaging activities for students that can be applied in classes worldwide. Simultaneously, toolkit’s potential has been rising over the years due to its ability to encompass relevant tools on specific subjects. Moreover, toolkits can be applied as authoring tools transforming students into game designers, motivating the creation of digita...

Playable Characters are the element of mediation between the Player and the digital game world. This paper proposes a taxonomy to categorize Playable Characters in Digital games based on the type of experience a digital game offer regarding the type of Playable Character a Digital game provides. The present paper has detailed a method to find Playa...

In recent years, serious games and gamification strategies have been used in the education field and seen as highly motivating for educating and motivating younger people. As regard to games, and in the field of environmental education, they emerge as an innovative approach to raise environmental awareness among youths, namely by challenging studen...

In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in using virtual reality (VR) to (re)create different scenarios and environments with interactive and immersive experiences. Although VR has been popular in the tourism sector to reconfigure tourists’ relationships with places and overcome mobility restrictions, its usage in senior cyclotourism has...

A global demographic turn is observed with senior citizens increasing in number, resulting on wellbeing concerns. That culminates into challenges and opportunities for creating tools, such as digital storytelling and gamification, to promote senior citizens’ interest and motivation to certain activities. While digital storytelling involves the narr...

There has been an increasing interest in gerontechnology due to the growth of an ageing population and subsequent challenges in interface design development. Methods of user-centered design and gamification have demonstrated to be powerful, leading to an excellent user experience, and also motivating and changing senior citizens’ behaviors. Applyin...

The research aims to test the attributes proposed by the authors Katherine Isbister, Better game characters by design: a psychological approach (2006) and Ernest Adams in Fundamentals of Game Design (2006). The Playable Characters analyzed were retrieved from the most played digital games from the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) reports be...

Technological ubiquity has brought countless paradigmatic changes – e.g. the rise of the network society; new forms of entertainment, socializing, and learning; and a digital divide that is still limiting the access and use for a large part of the population. Concurrently, an increasing ageing of the population has been witnessed, bringing addition...

The chapter “Definition of a Digital Tool to Create Physical Artifacts: The Case of the Gamers4Nature Project” was previously published non-open access. It has now been changed to open access under a CC BY 4.0 license and the copyright holder updated to ‘The Author(s)’. The book has also been updated with this change.

The growing technological ubiquity led to the digitization of games. Although they are not design with older adults in mind, some benefits can emerge from their use – e.g. enhance social interactions, and knowledge acquisition. The social component of digital games is highly amplified, especially when integrated in senior online communities. This p...

Introduction: The study of initiatives that promote active ageing is crucial given the global population demography. Objetive: To study the social support networks, stress, and quality of life of participants in the SEDUCE 2.0 project. Methods: Cross-sectional descriptive research, quantitative and qualitative. Data were collected through: Question...

Chapter “An Authoring Tool to Engage Younger Audiences in the Development of Nature Preservation Games: The G4N Toolkit to Game Design” was previously published non-open access. It has now been changed to open access under a CC BY 4.0 license and the copyright holder updated to ‘The Author(s)’. The book has also been updated with this change.

In this paper is presented the development and validation of a set of accessible short videos that explain the purpose and features of the Toolkit created within the Gamers4Nature project. The project Gamers4Nature aims to raise awareness about the preservation of the environment and biodiversity, through the creation of games for mobile devices. T...

This chapter examines the portrayal of rare and misdiagnosed diseases in 9 movies from 1980 to 2018. The analysis embodies the representation of rare diseases and the suggested audiovisual strategies to comprehend the message conveyed. Most of the movies introduced the disease by highlighting its symptoms. The binomial culture of cure and care ofte...

Aging audiences and the shift of news consumption to an online paradigm have led to the need of finding strategies to engage aging readers with online news by assessing their news consumption habits and identifying the potential for digital platforms to assist the reader’s journey, i.e., the activities performed from access to the information to th...

Seeking to capitalize the interest of younger audiences in game creation activities, the Gamers4Nature project aims to develop a toolkit designed to support game design by allowing the manipulation of the several elements that compose a game. Prior to the toolkit’s development, there was the need to establish the respective conceptual framework. Th...

Although research indicates that integrating students as active agents in the development of games encourages awareness and learning by doing and can be seen as a basis for the development of critical thinking skills, it also stresses that there are some obstacles in involving students to explore educational contents through digital game design. Th...

Research indicates that engaging younger audiences in the creation of their own digital games for learning may increase the interest towards the addressed theme and a better understanding of the value of what is learned. Giving young creators the tools needed to develop good games emerges as a key point for the success of this kind of activity. Too...

When evaluating digital games, it is essential to observe factors that lead them to be recognized as good productions accepted by the public. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to present a heuristic evaluation based on Heuristic Evaluation of Playability and a reflection on the results of "The Wolf Among Us", a digital game produced by Telltale Ga...

With the rapid development and popularity of touchscreen interaction on mobile devices, gamification has been deployed as an effective engagement tool for motivating users to have a continued use. However, most gamified design patterns are conceptualized for younger audiences and do not consider physiological, psychological and cognitive age-specif...

Digital games are not always perfect in terms of usability, and, as such, it is essential to realize what are the problems, to correct and to provide a better gameplay experience to the players. The heuristic evaluation is an example of a usability evaluation-one of several evaluations that can be performed on digital games. This paper aims to unde...

Lurkers are a group of users who barely post and tend to represent a large percentage of the users of online communities. Although this problem has been quite acknowledged in literature, the use of gamified strategies to encourage users' participation in online communities has been poorly understood. The purpose of this paper is to report on a gami...

The aim of this paper is to contribute to establishing practices to involve adults aged 50 and over in the design of digital games within the paradigm of active ageing. This paper focuses on a component of a larger project entitled SERIOUSGIGGLE integrated in the SEDUCE 2.0 research that enabled to develop the digital game JUMP that goes beyond ill...

Technologies have contributed to increase the average life expectancy, through medical care support, early diagnosis, psycho-physical-cognitive rehabilitation and, more recently, digital games, which have played a key role in the general well-being. However, the aging process embodies multiple-facets that determine the level of self-dependency on e...

The general decrease in fertility rates and the increase in longevity allow the incessant aging of the world population. Furthermore, senior citizens are becoming better consumers of tourism products, leading to the need to meet their context, demands, and preferences while avoiding overtourism. Although a boom is observed in this field, there is a...

Older adults are part of a significant proportion of the global population and given the rapid advancements of a digital society, the use of technologies by this age group is growing at a fast pace. However, technological products still overlook the older adults’ physiologic, psychologic, and social needs. In the journalism sector, World’s cyberiza...

In a context where the urgency to act towards the promotion of environmental awareness is imperative, the Gamers4Nature (G4N) project aims to encourage the active participation of students in the creation of mobile games addressing environmental-related themes. This chapter introduces the G4N Cards Set Canvas, a tool integrated into the G4N portal-...

Introduction: The use of Information and Communication Tech- nologies (ICT) among the senior population despite rising, there is still some distance (Barbosa, M., & Veloso, A. 2020). The current information society presents an increase of ICT services to replace traditional presential services. For this reason, this research aims to ‘‘understand th...

Students are being more often challenged not only to play but also to create games when there is increasing evidence of the impact, in terms of learning, of students' involvement in creating their own games centred on educational content. Nevertheless, the game making process has certain specificities that are not usually recognized by the public b...

Este artigo apresenta e reflete sobre conceitos, termos e expressões adjacentes ao contexto do envelhecimento e tem como objetivo o aprofundamento e a sistemati-zação dos significados e antinomias do conceito de velhice e envelhecimento na atualidade sob a perspetiva do Design. Com este estudo pretende-se contribuir para a clarificação de conceitos...

The Gamers4Nature (G4N) project aims to develop and implement a set of strategies that encourage younger audiences (i.e. upper-secondary and undergraduate students) to participate in the creation of mobile games, while promoting knowledge about environmental preservation. This paper introduces one of these strategies, the G4N portal-repository. The...

The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) among the senior population despite rising, there is still some distance1. The current information society presents an increase of ICT services to replace traditional presential services. For this reason, this research aims to “understand the difficulties that senior citizens experience wh...

Over the past few years, there has been a growing interest in the use of Information and Communication Technologies addressed to an ageing population. Since senior citizens are becoming better consumers of digitally mediated products, there has been an increasingly need to meet their demands and preferences, while fostering active ageing. However,...

In a context where the involvement of youngers in the development of games is seen as an effective way to promote a deeper identification and engagement with the educational content, the Gamers4Nature project introduces a Toolkit designed to support youngsters in the creation of mobile digital games addressing environmental and biodiversity preserv...

Resumo: Em pleno período de confinamento social dada a pandemia da COVID-19, as desigualdades intergeracionais tendem a ser amplificadas não só no sistema educativo, mas também no acesso à informação e diferentes serviços que se encontram, cada vez mais, informatizados. Apesar de se ter verificado um interesse crescente nos últimos anos relativamen...

Involving students in the creation of their own games about a theme may enhance the interest toward the addressed topic, a sense of ownership and a better understanding of the value of what is learned. This paper presents the application of a Toolkit to Game Design in two Game Creation sessions with upper-secondary students. The Toolkit was develop...

The ageing population and current changes in family structures have led to an increasing interest in forging strong relationships between different generations through leisure travel activities. Despite the popularity of digitally-mediated interventions in the tourism sector, there remains a lack of its use in uniting different generations through...

In a fast-paced and ageing society, the use of digital platforms to foster senior tourism has become a central issue for finding new strategies to engage senior citizens in retirement, usually an experience period of new sensations and family leisure-travel. In fact, senior citizens are a target group that is growing in terms of domestic tourism wi...

Os equipamentos de auxílio, que fazem parte da cultura material do idoso, trazem não só o amparo para a mobilidade, mas também ativam processos de subjetivação, pois evocam outras aspirações ligadas à sociedade, à cultura, aos valores simbólicos. Nesse sentido, o objetivo desta investigação foi analisar os discursos de idosos sobre seus respectivos...

The focus of this investigation was to problematize the stigma in products for the senior population. The assistive devices are not just support products, they are an extension of the senior's body, related to their daily life and that can provide good or bad experiences, disbeliefs and hopes in the process of aging. Thus, the connection between De...

Abstract: The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) is now democratized in the information society, however there are some age brackets that use less, such as senior citizens over the age of 65. Although the use of ICT among the senior population is rising, some distance still exists. The reality has shown that more and more servi...

The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) is now democratized in the information society, however there are some age brackets that use less, such as senior citizens over the age of 65. Although the use of ICT among the senior population is rising, some distance still exists. The reality has shown that more and more services are us...

Los diarios se han visto afectados por una progresiva pérdida de lectores durante la última década, específicamente entre los menores de 24 años. Éstos continúan informándose sobre sus áreas de interés, pero en redes sociales. Por ello, la prensa ha incorporado un periodismo lúdico, inmersivo y participativo a partir de tecnologías como la realidad...

Over the past few years, the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in older adults has been an increasing topic of interest within the fields of gerontology and new media. Given the global ageing population, the educational sector has also been challenged in order to meet the learning needs in older adults, age-related changes in...

This chapter examines the portrayal of rare and misdiagnosed diseases in 9 movies from 1980 to 2018. The analysis embodies the representation of rare diseases and the suggested audiovisual strategies to comprehend the message conveyed. Most of the movies introduced the disease by highlighting its symptoms. The binomial culture of cure and care ofte...

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Videogame Sciences and Arts, VJ 2019, held in Aveiro, Portugal, in November 2019. The 20 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 50 submissions. They were organized in topical sections named: Games and Theories; Table Boards; eSports; Uses...

The continued growth of the aging population has led to a greater interest in the subject of gerontechnology. In the case of the digital game industry, senior citizens are becoming better consumers, so the role of games to their wellbeing are becoming more important in order to meet their needs and preferences. Still, there is a general lack of inf...

The Gamers4Nature project aims to deliver a set of strategies to empower and encourage youngsters (upper-secondary and undergraduate students) to actively participate in games creation while raising knowledge about environmental preservation and biodiversity conservation. To accomplish these goals, a Toolkit to Game Design is being created, contain...

A presente investigação mostra que a ampla disseminação das Tecnologias da Informação e da Comunicação (TIC) trouxe às sociedades contemporâneas novas oportunidades, mas colocou também importantes desafios para a população sénior que tem de aproveitar ao máximo o potencial das TIC para diminuir o risco de exclusão e a desigualdade geracional [1;2]....

Digital games are not always perfect and, as such, it is important to realize what there is to correct in order to provide a better experience to the players. The heuristic evaluation is an example of a usability evaluation-one of several evaluations that can be performed on digital games. This article aims to understand, based on a heuristic evalu...

Os equipamentos de auxílio, presentes na cultura material do sênior, trazem não só o amparo para a mobilidade, mas antes, e também, despertam pro-cessos de subjetivação, na medida em evocam aspirações ligados à sociedade, à cultura, aos valores simbólicos, aos fatores emocionais. Nesse sentido, o objetivo desta investigação foi refletir teoricament...

: Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) seem to have a positive impact on senior communities and they could help to promote independent living at home. However, the interface design is not always adapted to this population. Given the current demands for delivering online the Income Tax Treaty Documents (using the website «e-fatura»), thi...

Senior citizens may benefit from the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) despite the existence of several barriers and difficulties regarding their use. Skype is both a synchronous and asynchronous communication tool that enables to make calls and exchange messages. The purpose of this study was to assess the usability of Skype...

The rise of Instagram, as the fastest growing social network in Spain and Portugal, and its incorporation into the communication strategies of beauty and fashion brands have posed some risks for younger followers in relation to the development of identity and self-esteem. A physical appearance acceptance movement has also begun, based on interactio...

In the current scenario of aging of the European population, walking aids (like the walking sticks, crutches and, walker) are part of the senior´s material universe and bring for one hand, the support in locomotion and, for another side, they activate complex subjectivation processes, evoke cultural aspects, massification, and symbolic values. Thus...

No atual cenário de envelhecimento da população europeia, os equipamentos de auxílio, como as bengalas, muletas e andarilhos, fazem parte do universo material do sénior e trazem não só o amparo na locomoção, mas também, ativam processos de subjetivação complexos, evocam aspirações ligados à cultura, à massiicação e aos valores simbólicos. Assim, se...

Digital games are frequently described as media that can be crucial in strengthening relationships, enhancing cognitive skills and providing social support. Although considerable empirical research on the use of digital games in youth and stereotypes on gender or ethnicity has been widely covered, there have been few studies on age stereotyping in...

The aim of this study is to explore the main aspects that affect pre/during and post-learning experiences in later age. Specifically, the study examined the problems adult learners encountered in learning how to use digital technologies, accessibility in learning and strategies to enhance technology-based learning experiences that take into account...

In the context of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), there is clearly a great difficulty in persuading older people to use them, particularly those with low digital literacy. This reality is mainly due to their lack of access opportunities, physical and psycho-sociological individual characteristics, and by the functionality of techn...

This paper presents the methods and approaches used in the process of branding an online community for older adults, by actively involving them in its development. It starts by presenting a synthesis of the literature available on the naming and branding processes, the older adults’ characteristics, and relevant participatory design methods used. T...