Description of the Research Steps

A. Step 1 – Analysis and Evaluation of the Situation

In this step, topics related with Senior Citizens, Gamification, Motivation and Cyclo-tourism were reviewed to further understand the phenomenon of the use of gamification in senior cyclo- tourism.

After the literature review conducted between July 2018 to April 2019 and app analysis (see 4. Related Work), a set of focus groups sessions, eye-tracking and interviews were planned and divided. Table 4 provides an overview of the methods that were planned.

Table 4 – Overview of the methods planned

Method

Participants

Time

Period

Session

number

Activity

Focus Group

Senior Citizens from the University of Third Age of Gafanha da Nazaré May 2019 1 Introduction to Cyclo-tourism 2 Take a bicycle ride 3 Co-design 4 App Evaluation Eye Tracking

Senior Citizens from the University of Third Age of Esmoriz

May 29th

2019 1 App Evaluation

Interview

Cyclists aged over 55 years old from Portugal and other countries May 2019 – June 2019 1 How should a cyclo-tourism app be 2 App Evaluation

5. EMPIRICAL RESEARCH

GAMIFICATION AND SENIOR CYCLO-TOURISM: DESIGNING AN APP FOR THE MIONE COMMUNITY

Within the scope of the SEDUCE 2.0 research project, adult learners at the University of Third Age of Gafanha da Nazaré were invited to four focus group sessions, whereas the learners of the University of Third Age of Esmoriz participated in an eye-tracking session. Additionally, an interview protocol was conducted to gather the perspective of cyclists aged 55 and over, from Portugal and other countries, on the use of game elements and techniques to motivate to cyclo- tourism.

The purpose of the sessions involving Focus Groups (Session 1, 2, 3 and 4), Eye Tracking (Session 1) and Interviews (Session 1 and 2) was to understand the needs and preferences of senior citizens relative to: (a) the use of gamified apps (activities: Introduction to Cyclo-tourism, Take a bicycle ride and How should a cyclo-tourism app be); (b) skills and competences in the use of technology (Eye-tracking activity: App Evaluation); (c) involvement of a group of senior citizens in the process of designing and developing prototypes (activities: Co-design) and usability testing for the app evaluation (all methods’ activity: App Evaluation); (d) a clarification of this project framework on active aging and self-motivation concepts (activity: Introduction to Cyclo-tourism); and (e) development of a gamified app in cyclo-tourism context (activity: Take a bicycle ride and How should a cyclo-tourism app be). These planned sessions were crucial to carry out the co-design sessions described in Step 2 – Concept and Design of the Prototype.

B. Step 2 – Concept and Design of the Prototype

This step initiated with problem-solving led by the researcher and the team of participants. The researcher attempted to build alliances with the participants in order to understand and assess the senior citizens’ interaction with digital devices, and this process required high levels of commitment and engagement in the search of the best solution (McIntyre, 2008). Both the researcher and participants generated game ideas and, subsequently, co-designed some of these ideas and transformed them into game concepts.

In order to understand the requirements that a gamification app should have to motivate senior citizens to cyclo-tourism, this step was performed by focus group sessions with Portuguese adult learners at the University of Third Age of Gafanha da Nazaré combined with the interviews with cyclists aged 55 and over from Portugal and other countries. According to Goodwin (2009, p.56) “combining observation with interviews will allow you to gather rich useful information […] and minimize self-reporting error” and, thus, gathering information from different sources gave further insights into prototype design.

5. EMPIRICAL RESEARCH

GAMIFICATION AND SENIOR CYCLO-TOURISM: DESIGNING AN APP FOR THE MIONE COMMUNITY

Whereas the conception of the prototype encompasses two focus group sessions and an interview, the development of the prototype also includes one focus group session and the inputs received by the cyclists’ interviewees. Tables 5 and 6 show the description of activities that were carried out in both the conception and development phase.

Table 5 – Description of the conception phase

Session Description

Focus Group

1

Introduction to cyclo-tourism

Introduce the researcher, the research project, procedures, main goals, the topics to be drawn during the course, and chronogram;

Discuss motivations to ride a bicycle, the concept of tourism and cyclo-tourism.

2

Bicycle ride

Use the Strava app to record and understand the pros and cons of its use.

Interview 1

How to design a cyclo-tourism app

Acknowledge the cyclist’s preferences when traveling regarding the use of an app.

Table 6 – Description of the development phase

Session Description

Focus Group 3

Co-design

Introduce the concept of gamification (elements and examples); Show intrinsic motivation associated with gamification; Build an app by using collage techniques to meet the cyclo-tourist’s needs.

Interview 2 Inputs _{Collect data from the cyclists’ interview.}

C. Step 3 – Implementation and Evaluation

The prototype review process was done in order to validate the created model and meet the research implementation and evaluation goals. A demo of a gamified app co-designed with the end-users was presented, played and, lastly, tested with eye-tracking. A group of cyclists’ users aged 55 and over were also interviewed and tested the app, aiming at crossing different sources of data. Then, the results were interpreted.

5. EMPIRICAL RESEARCH

GAMIFICATION AND SENIOR CYCLO-TOURISM: DESIGNING AN APP FOR THE MIONE COMMUNITY

In this step, the researcher worked as a team with the usability testers, by observing the end-users testing the prototype and discussing its design. The end-user’s comments were taken into consideration for future improvements of the prototype that was build.