Promoting physical activity is crucial for well-being and mental health, especially for older individuals with reduced risks of physical and psychological diseases like cognitive decline. In Italy, 17.5% of people aged 65-74 engage in sports, with a higher prevalence among men (21.6%) than women (13.7%). Theoretical models like self-determination theory (SDT) offer insights into motivational factors. SDT suggests a continuum of motivation, from absence to intrinsic motivation, with controlled and autonomous motivations driven by internal or external factors. Supporting autonomy in meeting psychological needs enhances motivation. We describe a proof-of-concept of the Age-It Project. Aiming to evaluate the impact of encouragement messages formulated based on Self-Determination Theory (SDT) received during physical activity while being immersed in an Augmented Reality (AR) Environment. The AR app acts as a virtual coach, leveraging psychological determinants to promote healthy behaviors. The objective is to foster behavioral change, enhance mental and physical functioning, and assess intervention effectiveness.

We describe a proof-of-concept of VITA, a two-year project started in the fall of 2023, aiming to develop innovative dual cognitive/motor training for healthy older adults in an Augmented Reality (AR) environment intended to foster behavioral change processes, promote general cognitive and physical functioning, and social interactions. Previous work, in fact, always focuses on individual, either cognitive or motor, training. In the paper, the project’s initial work is presented, consisting of an AR environment in which users can perform motor tasks, such as catching balloons with a ring and avoiding falling rocks, simultaneously with cognitive training.

Several attempts have been made to enhance mindfulness through Virtual and Mixed Reality. To date, they only offer users an alternative way of presenting guided imagery (e.g., mentally visualizing a beach vs. rendering a beach). We propose a preliminary study investigating whether allowing users to actively explore guided imagery through their actions (e.g., grasping virtual objects with hands) affects the mindfulness experience. To this aim, we present a preliminary study on a VR scenario for mindfulness practice that encourages the user’s interactive behavior in two conditions: interactive multimodal VR vs. audio-only. No significant difference was observed in self-reported mindfulness between the two conditions.

Digital transformation is increasingly blurring the line between what is software and what is the world, requiring designers to harmoniously blend digital and physical products, services and spaces if they want to orchestrate meaningful experiences that are specifically aimed at the interweaving relationships between people, places and things. Traditional approaches to product design, interaction design, and user experience design do not often take this new context into account. The pictorial details the results of a twelve-day workshop focusing on real-world audience and performer problems during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe: it illustrates how two distinct tools, the Blended Experiences Tool and the Evaluation Tool, focusing on the creation of a blended experience and respectively meant to provide a structured way to approach the generative and reflective stages of the design process, can be used to address this gap. This pictorial illustrates the theoretical framing supporting the Blended Experiences Tool; describes how the workshop produced Laugh Traders, a speculative experience centering on attending and reviewing comedy shows; provides a page-by-page pictorial storyboard of the Laugh Trader experience; introduces the Evaluation Tool and applies it to Laugh Trader to measure the relevance, complexity, and attractiveness of the resulting blended experience. Preliminary reflections conclude the pictorial.