Tabletop role-playing for inclusive design: Imagining sustainable futures for ‘older adults’

Emily Barker -

Older adults are often seen as a homogeneous group, disregarding their diversity in attitudes, abilities, and needs. This stereotypical view can seep into the research and design of digital technologies when developing for this age group, which can lead to those technologies not matching with actual needs and abilities and thus not being picked up or engaged with.

This hands-on workshop explores Tabletop Role-Playing Games (TTRPGs) as a method for HCI/UX to promote reflection on the concept of ‘older adults’ and to raise awareness for the heterogeneity of this demographic. The TTRPG adventure was set in a sustainable future where a socio-ecological transformation has taken place; a transformation that can be significantly aided by digital technologies, which additionally stresses the need for a deeper reflection on the heterogeneity of all demographics involved in such a transformation, including ‘older adults’.

This project is a collaboration between Denise Lengyel from the Centre for Digital Citizens at Open Lab,  Kirsikka Kaipainen from the research group of Human-Centered Technology at Tampere University, Michael Heron from Chalmers University of Technology the University of Gothenburg University, Miriam Sturdee from University of St Andrews, Makayla Lewis from Kingston University London and Jennifer Liddle from Newcastle University. You can find a more detailed description of their research interests and game-related backgrounds here and here. 

The workshop was accepted to the 'Accessibility and Inclusion in the Digital Society' track of Academic MindTrek 2023 in Finland and was held there as an in-person event. It was attended by 9 participants who were between 26 and 58 years old and identified as women/female (5), men/male (3) and non-binary (1). They were Project Researchers and PhD students from Computer Science, Game Studies, HCI, Gerontology and Political Science from a variety of socio-cultural backgrounds. 

This workshop contributes to an improved understanding of TTRPG as an approach to understanding diversity, paving the way to further research into inclusive design of digital technology for sustainability and beyond. 

Impact

This project led to an ACM publication of a workshop paper as well as a paper/presentation at the Annual Conference of the British Society of Gerontology, 2024. We are currently working on follow-up publications focused on the content and methodology used in this workshop.