Events

Date: 7 May 2026   Time: 15:00 - 16:00

Location: Engineering G2

Abstract: In recent years, serious games have become a promising way to support both auditory and cognitive training, especially because they help keep people motivated and engaged. In this seminar, I'll share how we used a participatory design approach to create HELIX, a new auditory‑cognitive training app built around a sentence‑discrimination and recall task set within six everyday listening scenarios. The development process involved two cycles of participatory design with 18 stakeholders, whose input shaped the structure, look, and functionality of the final app. We then evaluated HELIX through a randomised controlled trial with 43 participants, who used the app for four weeks and were followed up four weeks later. A range of outcome measures allowed us to look for signs of transfer beyond the trained tasks. Although both the training and control groups improved on an untrained speech‑in‑noise task, we didn't observe significant changes in the other outcome measures. However, participants' reflections revealed meaningful perceived benefits, including increased awareness of their listening challenges, the development of new listening strategies, and positive behaviour changes. I'll discuss how participatory design ensured HELIX was genuinely aligned with user needs and where future research could go, particularly in extending training duration and refining how serious‑game elements are integrated to support auditory and cognitive health.