Gamification of Stroke (Aphasia) Rehabilitation
This project aims to design and implement a clinically grounded gamification layer for GazeTalk — an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) and aphasia rehabilitation app currently in pilot development at DTU. Patient motivation and adherence are among the biggest challenges in aphasia rehabilitation, and technology-based tools are no exception. This project goes beyond superficial game mechanics (badges, points) to design adaptive difficulty systems that are directly coupled to measurable linguistic recovery progress.
The goal of this project is to design, implement, and evaluate a gamification module for GazeTalk's rehabilitation exercises. More specifically, the project should:
- Review existing literature and practice on gamification in rehabilitation and digital health applications
- Map GazeTalk's existing linguistic metrics (TTR, MLU, CIU) to adaptive difficulty and reward triggers
- Design and implement game mechanics that reflect genuine recovery progress rather than arbitrary engagement patterns
- Employ user-centered design methods throughout the design and evaluation process
- Work with clinical partners and run a small usability and engagement study with target users (if possible)
This project builds upon GazeTalk's existing session metrics pipeline, which already tracks linguistic performance across sessions. The gamification layer will be designed to sit on top of this infrastructure without disrupting the clinical data model. The project will be supervised by postdoctoral researcher Ekky Tammarar Alfian and co-supervised by Prof. John Paulin Hansen. This project can be formulated into a Master thesis/Bachelor thesis/student project. The project is expected to start in the Fall semester 2026 (negotiable).
Thesis type: Design of gamification for aphasia rehabilitation with a possibility of a user study
Technical skills: UX/interaction design; frontend development; usability evaluation
Research skills: Human-Computer Interaction; Rehabilitation Science; Behavioral Design; Game Design
Educational background: Human-Centered Informatics, Digital Design, Computer Science with design/UX focus
ECTS credits: MSc thesis / BSc thesis / Special course (5 or 10 ECTS)
Contact: < email supprimé pour raison de sécurité >
By working on the project, you will be part of a team aiming to improve lives for stroke patients!