Design research at the border of art, technology, and healthcare: Interdisciplinary challenges of games for health research

Abstract

Healthcare research is increasingly becoming more multidisciplinary with the involvement of various disciplines outside the medical sciences including but not limited to engineering, computer science, human computer interaction, and games. Since game development is interdisciplinary, games for health (G4H) encloses transitions between technology, humanities, social sciences, and health & rehabilitation. At an overlapping discourse of multi-disciplinarity, inter-disciplinarity, and trans-disciplinarity, this paper presents design research as a core research methodology for G4H research via reflecting on a G4H project. The aims of the paper are (1) motivating the use of design research for G4H, (2) reflecting on the challenges of interdisciplinary research, and (3) initiating a discourse for a more informed research practice and a well-directed research future in the areas of G4H.