A Usability Evaluation of a Mobile Exergame for Ankle Joint Exercises

Despite the benefits of exercise programs in rehabilitation, patients' adherence is known to be low. Especially, repetitive and monotonous exercises compromise adherence to the rehabilitation program. Exergames have been suggested as one way to support regular training which includes such mundane exercises. Within this contribution we present a mobile exergame for ankle joint exercises, focusing on dorsi-extension and plantar-flexion, that can be used in different contexts. Our system consists of two wireless inertial measurement units (IMU) and a mobile device. A between-subject user study was carried out with age-group as independent variable and its levels young adults (18-29 years old) and older adults (50-67 years old). 20 young and 21 older participants evaluated the usability. Additionally, we used the constructs perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and perceived enjoyment of the technology acceptance model (TAM) to predict the intention towards using our system. We present further results of the conducted user study and provide an outlook for future research directions.