Active Parks: ‘Phygital’ urban games for sedentary and older people

Abstract

We present our work in the Active Parks project, aimed at encouraging older and sedentary people to take casual physical exercise in urban spaces, such as parks. This is achieved through the co-design of playful ‘phygital’ (physical and digital) artefacts and games to be installed in the park. The initial testing of our proof-of-concept prototype received extremely positive feedback as a potential way of motivating people to keep active in the park and in bridging the generation gap.