Rehabilitating Experience: Designing an Aesthetic and Movement-based Game for Physical Therapy

The quality of aesthetic and movement experience is important to a physical therapy patient’s motivation for recovery. The physical therapy patient’s experience of moving is often restricted to their personal recovery plan; however, we are interested in whether connecting to a personal expressive experience and use of external motivation can support the quality of the recovery experience. We ask the question, ‘how can interactive art games support a patient’s recovery process by focusing on quality of movement performance, enjoyment and engagement?’ The recent rise of gameplay with virtual and augmented reality, high resolution graphics and believable characters is now easily available to the consumer. A variety of games designed to support therapeutic environments and rehabilitation exist, yet the area of movement and aesthetic experience is under researched. In our investigation of colour psychology, frameworks for movement quality, and implementation of gaming elements in therapeutic environments, we explore trends as to what succeeds or doesn’t to make an engaging and productive therapy game. Supernova is an exploratory project to investigate the intersection of motivation in physical therapy, experience-focused design, and digital interaction.