Abstract
In healthcare design, increasing attention has been given to the well-being of people with visual impairments. How inclusive game design can support their social interaction and mental well-being remains under explored in healthcare design. This study aims to explore how visually impaired and sighted individuals create co-experience through a board game. We designed a 3×3 soft-surface tactile board prototype that combines membranes deformation and vibration feedback, to provide a relatively equal gaming platform for players with different visual abilities. We adopted Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to analyze in-depth interview data captured from five visually impaired and five sighted participants, identified four super ordinate themes: (1) social rhythm and co-play; (2) information perception and fairness; (3) autonomy and sense of control; (4) self-awareness and emotional fluctuation. The results show that vision limitations are not generally assumed as obstacles to forming co-experience, as prevailing literature predicts. Instead, designers could actively shape and leverage co-experience between players across different visual abilities through interaction design strategies. This study provides theoretical implications for healthcare design among visual impaired individuals, offering practical guidelines for designing accessible games for people across different visual abilities.
Keywords
Visually Impaired; Healthcare design; Interaction design; Game design; IPA; Co-experience
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.666
Citation
Yao, Y., Yu, Y.,and Zhang, J.(2025) "Feeling" the Game Together: Designing for Tactile Co-Experience among Players with Diverse Visual Abilities, in Chang, C.-Y., and Hsu, Y. (eds.), IASDR 2025: Design Next, 02-05 December, Taiwan. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.666
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Track 9 - Healthcare Design
"Feeling" the Game Together: Designing for Tactile Co-Experience among Players with Diverse Visual Abilities
In healthcare design, increasing attention has been given to the well-being of people with visual impairments. How inclusive game design can support their social interaction and mental well-being remains under explored in healthcare design. This study aims to explore how visually impaired and sighted individuals create co-experience through a board game. We designed a 3×3 soft-surface tactile board prototype that combines membranes deformation and vibration feedback, to provide a relatively equal gaming platform for players with different visual abilities. We adopted Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to analyze in-depth interview data captured from five visually impaired and five sighted participants, identified four super ordinate themes: (1) social rhythm and co-play; (2) information perception and fairness; (3) autonomy and sense of control; (4) self-awareness and emotional fluctuation. The results show that vision limitations are not generally assumed as obstacles to forming co-experience, as prevailing literature predicts. Instead, designers could actively shape and leverage co-experience between players across different visual abilities through interaction design strategies. This study provides theoretical implications for healthcare design among visual impaired individuals, offering practical guidelines for designing accessible games for people across different visual abilities.