Independent Blog

Last Thursday, the 26th, I accompanied my mentor and a couple other people from Blue Marble Game Company to the YMCA for some field testing with the game, Health in Motion. At the YMCA, we had six elders, ranging from around 71-76, come in and do a fall screening.

Going out and testing this game with elders helps us see...

1. how the users react to the game
2. what they like/dislike about the game
3. how we can improve the game to make it more enjoyable to the user
4. if the Kinect is working/tracking the movements properly
5. how to make the instructions/use of the game easier for the user to understand

Those are a few of the things we looked at while game testing. It is extremely important for us to see how the seniors interact with the game because they are our target audience. If they are not able to navigate the game on their own and enjoy it, then the game will not sell as much. Going out and field testing helps with so many different aspects of the game and it is so much fun to meet these people and have them test out Health in Motion.

Nina(seat left) is my mentor. She explains the game to the seniors, helps them while they play to game to make sure they're safe(she's a PT), and asks them questions about the game.

Rachel(seated right) records and codes the videos while the play test is happening.

Tony(standing right) is one of the designers of the game. He is there to observe to see how the game can be improved, see that the tracking is working properly, and to help with technical difficulties.

Blog 18: Fourth Interview Preparation

1. Why is fall prevention so important?
2. How can falling effect an elderly person's way of life?
3. How does home improvement/installations help in preventing falls?
4. Would you recommend a personal trainer/PT or an at home program? Why?
5. What do you think are the most effective exercises for an elder to perform?
6. What does a video game offer that other fall prevention strategies don't?
7. Does an at home video game have any disadvantages? What are they?
8. How often do these tasks need to be performed in order to use them to the full extent?
9. What do you believe is the best way to prevent falling?
10. What kind of external factors can increase fall risk?
11. Do you think putting someone in a facility is a good or bad thing? Why?
12. If it was your loved one, how would you prepare them?
13. How do you work around health issues? Like if they have arthritis or something and it is painful for them to exercise.
14. Is there any way to prevent falling without exercising?
15. How do you help those with fear?
16. How is communication with the client helpful?
17. Why is trust between the patient and PT/program important?
18. How do you approach a client in order to build a solid foundation with them?
19. Are there ever any difficult clients? How do you get past that?
20. What is the most important thing to remember throughout the fall prevention process?

Blog 17: Answer 3

1. What is your EQ?

What is the best way for a healthcare professional to reduce the risk of falling in the elderly?

2. What is your third answer?

The best way for a healthcare professional to reduce the risk of falling in the elderly is by implementing multiple interventions with the patients.

3. My research articles 10, 18, and 25 best support my third answer.

4. Take precautions in multiple areas like exercise, at home prevention, and medication regulation will help cover more ground in reducing falls.

Independent Blog

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuPJrkE-CSA

This is a link to a YouTube video called Video Game and Fall Prevention.

In this video, they show a little clip of a video game that patients used in order to prevent their falling in the future. This is a good example of a simple game.

Blog 16: Answer 2

1. What is your EQ?

What is the best way for a healthcare professional to reduce the risk of falling in the elderly?

2. What is your first answer?

The best way for a healthcare professional to reduce the risk of falling in the elderly is to keep the patient active through physical activities in order to strengthen muscles and stability.

3. What is your second answer?

The best way for a healthcare professional to reduce the risk of falling in the elderly is to continue physical activity through the used of a video game.

4. List three reasons your answer is true with a real-world application for each.

• Doing the sit to stand movement increases the muscle in the thigh. Increased strength reduces risk. Doing this with the game makes it more fun for the patient as well as healthcare provider. 
• Parting the Horses Mane helps with balance for the elderly, decreasing fall risk. Doing this in the game makes it more fun for the patient. 
• One Leg Stand helps balance in the elder, decreasing fall risk. Doing this will the came makes it more fun for the patient. 

5. What printed source best supports your answer?

Power Training: Can it Improve Functional Performance  in Older Adults?

6. What other source supports your answer?

General Studies of the Sit to Stand Movement

7. Tie this together with a concluding thought. 

I think that using these techniques and keeping elders active will reduce their risk of falling and reduce falling in general. 

Blog 15: Independent Component 2 Approval

1. For my second independent component, I plan on doing some more mentorship and starting to plan to design my own mini game for Health in motion. I will come up with the exercise that I will be using and the setting of the game. This will help me get into the workings of creating a fall prevention game.

2. I will storyboard my own mini game that I have created and turn it in on the due date.

3. Working at my mentorship helps me see the excises put in action through the game and why they help the elders. Taking what I learn there and transferring into making my own mini game will really solidify what I have learned and make it into my own creation.

Blog 14: Independent Component 1

LITERAL

(a) I, Hannah Seyffert, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.

(b) Since I did extra mentorship for this component, my mentor Nina Withrington helped me complete my independent component. 

(c) See Working Bibliography

(d) I completed more mentorship hours at the Blue Marble Game Co. for my first independent component. I game tested, sat in on meetings, data checked, and basically shadowed my mentor throughout this component. I'm pretty much an intern. I help them do actual work that needs to be done.

INTERPRETIVE

My senior project is on Elderly Care, but focused on the Fall Prevention aspect of that care. By doing extra mentorship, I got to see the way things are run in a company that create games to help prevent falls. Data checking,game testing, writing up bugs, having meetings about the games, looking at all of the exercises; these are the things that helped me create my first answer for my Essential Question. It is a process, but if it reduces fall risk and the overall death rate among the elderly, it's worth it.

 This photo is an example of some game testing. As you may have noticed in the upper right portion of the screen, some words are being covered by the title of the game. This is called a bug. This is not supposed to happen. The words are telling us that there was an issue with the network connection so it wasn't able to log in to the server. With it being covered like that, the player will be less likely to notice it, or even, be able to read it clearly. In fact, I did not notice it until Jake said something when he took a look at it.

This is another example of a bug in the game. As you can see, on the results page for the exercises, it mentions the "Chair Stand Test" twice. It should only be mentioned once, since I only completed the task once.

APPLIED

Doing more mentorship helped me see why fall prevention is so important. I also learned through the process why certain exercises were chosen for the game. Some are better than others at decreasing your fall risk, and it is important to know which ones in order to create the most efficient and effective way to prevent a fall. Sitting in on meetings and discussions helped me see the professionals' thought processes and how they come to their conclusions about the game. I also got to see an elder play the game and how they interacted with the game. The exercises can be difficult for them even though they're not difficult for a young teen like me. So seeing that and how their muscles improve through that also helps me answer my Essential Question.