Liang Zilu, Melcer Edward, Khotchasing Kingkarn, Chen Samantha, Hwang Daeun, Hoang Nhung Huyen
Ubiquitous and Personal Computing Lab, Kyoto University of Advanced Science, Kyoto, Japan.
School of Computer Science, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
JMIR Serious Games. 2024 Oct 8;12:e64063. doi: 10.2196/64063.
Sleep games are an emerging topic in the realm of serious health game research. However, designing features that are both enjoyable and effective at engaging users, particularly university students, to develop healthy sleep habits remains a challenge.
This study aims to investigate user preferences for 3 sleep game prototypes, that is, Hero's Sleep Journey, Sleep Tamagotchi, and Sleepland, and to explore their popularity and perceived utility in promoting sleep health.
A mixed methods approach was used in this study. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through a co-design workshop involving 47 university students. Participants were presented with storyboard cards of game features and were asked to provide an overall rating on each game, as well as ratings for individual features. They were also encouraged to provide free-form comments on the features and suggest improvements. In addition, participants were asked to express their preferences among the 3 games regarding which game they would most like to play and which one they found most useful for promoting sleep health.
Surprisingly, while Hero's Sleep Journey was the most popular choice among participants, Sleep Tamagotchi was perceived as the most beneficial for improving sleep health. Relevance emerged as an overarching theme in the qualitative data analysis, with 3 interconnected dimensions: psychological relevance to users' personal lives, logical relevance to sleep health, and situational relevance to users' circumstantial context. We discussed how the 3 dimensions of relevance address the autonomy and relatedness constructs outlined in the self-determination theory and proposed 3 design recommendations.
Our serious sleep game prototypes demonstrated the potential to engage university students to develop healthy sleep hygiene. Future sleep game designs should aim to create a sense of relevance to users' personal lives, sleep health goals, and situational contexts. Rather than a one-size-fits-all approach, it is essential to develop a wide range of game genres and features to cater to diverse users. Aligning game features with sleep health goals and educating users on the design rationale through sleep knowledge are also important aspects. Furthermore, allowing users to customize their game experience and manage technology boundaries is necessary to nurture a sense of control and autonomy in the process of forming good sleep hygiene.
睡眠游戏是严肃健康游戏研究领域中一个新兴的话题。然而，设计出既有趣又能有效吸引用户（尤其是大学生）养成健康睡眠习惯的功能仍然是一项挑战。
本研究旨在调查用户对三款睡眠游戏原型（即《英雄的睡眠之旅》《睡眠电子宠物》和《睡眠乐园》）的偏好，并探讨它们在促进睡眠健康方面的受欢迎程度和感知效用。
本研究采用了混合方法。通过一个涉及47名大学生的协同设计工作坊收集定量和定性数据。向参与者展示游戏功能的故事板卡片，并要求他们对每个游戏给出总体评分，以及对各个功能进行评分。还鼓励他们对这些功能提供自由形式的评论并提出改进建议。此外，要求参与者在这三款游戏中表达他们的偏好，即他们最想玩哪款游戏以及他们认为哪款游戏对促进睡眠健康最有用。
令人惊讶的是，虽然《英雄的睡眠之旅》是参与者中最受欢迎的选择，但《睡眠电子宠物》被认为对改善睡眠健康最有益。相关性在定性数据分析中成为一个总体主题，有三个相互关联的维度：与用户个人生活的心理相关性、与睡眠健康的逻辑相关性以及与用户情境背景的情境相关性。我们讨论了相关性的这三个维度如何解决自我决定理论中概述的自主性和关联性结构，并提出了三条设计建议。
我们的严肃睡眠游戏原型展示了吸引大学生养成健康睡眠习惯的潜力。未来的睡眠游戏设计应旨在营造与用户个人生活、睡眠健康目标和情境背景的相关性。重要的是开发多种游戏类型和功能以迎合不同用户，而不是采用一刀切的方法。使游戏功能与睡眠健康目标保持一致，并通过睡眠知识向用户传授设计原理也是重要的方面。此外，允许用户定制他们的游戏体验并管理技术界限对于在养成良好睡眠习惯的过程中培养控制感和自主感是必要的。
