Creating Age-Specific Interactive Environments about Medical Treatments for Children and Adolescent Patients Diagnosed with Cancer

摘要

This paper describes the development of an interactive multimedia environment designed for helping young patients to understand cancer-related medical treatments. The application is not intended to replace the medical consultation but to support it by conveying general information about necessary procedures and thus giving doctors more time for individual concerns and fears of their patients. We used a user-centered approach to author the information advisedly to suit different age groups: preschoolers, school-aged children and teenagers. All approaches are combined to an interactive entertainment environment that uses videos, game based interaction and interactive storytelling to make new knowledge easily accessible.