BreathIn – A Serious Game to Support Patients with Smoking Cessation : Analysis and design study for a mobile serious game to help patients quit smoking

Abstract

Smoking is still a worldwide phenomenon and a big health issue that needs to be combated. Smoking cigarettes is linked to many serious illnesses and causes an estimated six million deaths per year. Tobacco users are more likely to quit if they have better knowledge of specific health risks caused by their tobacco consumption. Over- coming this addiction caused by nicotine is often very difficult both on a physical as well as a psychological level and most smokers fail to stop, especially on a long-term basis. It has been shown that the success rate to stop smoking increases when smokers use some form of further assistance. Therefore, the authors of this paper suggest a novel serious game to support the process of smoking cessation called “BreathIn”. After a comprehensive literature review and a state-of-the-art analysis, an iterative design study was conducted. During a total of three it- erations, responses from 304 participants with the help of an online questionnaire and 9 additional interview partners were collected and ended up in the definition of 12 final requirements which were used for the definition and design of the serious game (low-fidelity prototype). The prototype was then subsequently evaluated by 6 users and one psychiatrist in the third and final iteration.