Games for Seniors: Which App Is Worth Installing
SilverGuard Technologies Limited8 min read
Judge games for seniors on six things you can check in an afternoon: buttons big enough to hit, contrast that survives a dim room, no advertisement between rounds, a plain statement of what it collects, a version that runs on the tablet already in the flat, and a two-week trial.
Three different products are sold under the same name
The phrase "games app for seniors" describes at least three things, and they are judged by different standards. The first is a cognitive training app, where the point is a targeted task with a difficulty ladder — the design rules for that are set out in what makes a cognitive training game work. The second is entertainment: mahjong, solitaire, jigsaw puzzles, a karaoke app. The third is a family connection product, where the games exist to give two generations something to do on a video call.
The mistake buyers make is to apply the third product's standards to the first, or the first's to the third. A mahjong app does not need a difficulty ladder and should not pretend to have one. A training app that a resident plays for fun only is not doing its job. Decide which of the three you are looking for before you install anything, because the checklist below is aimed at all three and the weighting changes.
There is a fourth case, and it is the one that matters most in Hong Kong: a tablet bought for a parent by an adult child who lives in another district, set up in an afternoon, and then left to run without anyone watching what it does. Most of this note is about that tablet.
The accessibility checks that decide whether it is usable
Five checks, each of which takes minutes and none of which needs a review of the app store listing. They are written so that a family member can run them with the person who will actually use the app.
| Check | Why it decides the purchase | How to test it in five minutes |
|---|---|---|
| Touch targets | Shaky hands and a dry fingertip miss small controls; the international minimum is 24 by 24 CSS pixels, and that is a floor, not a target | Open the app and try to press every button one-handed while standing |
| Contrast and text size | A resident with cataracts or early macular change needs more than the default; body text should hold at 4.5 to 1 against its background | Turn the screen brightness to half and look at it from 50 cm in a dim room |
| One action per screen | A screen that offers six choices produces a stall, not a decision | Watch whether the person hesitates before the first tap |
| Timing under control | A countdown that cannot be paused turns a game into a test, and a test into a refusal | Start a round and look for the pause control |
| Sound that can be turned down | Care homes and flats share walls; a game that beeps on every tap gets muted and then abandoned | Find the mute before the first round, not after |
The touch target figure is worth knowing precisely, because it is the one accessibility rule with a published number behind it: WCAG 2.2, success criterion 2.5.8, sets a minimum of 24 by 24 CSS pixels for pointer targets, with exceptions for targets in a sentence or where an equivalent control exists. For an older adult with tremor, 24 is the floor a designer must clear, not a size that will feel comfortable.
The dim-room test catches more bad apps than any other single check. Most games are designed on a bright monitor in a bright office; a bedroom at 8 p.m. with one lamp is a different instrument, and grey text on a grey card disappears.
Ads, subscriptions and who ends up paying
A free game with advertising between rounds is a poor fit for this audience for a reason that has nothing to do with taste. An advertisement is an unexpected change of screen with a call to action, and a person with mild cognitive impairment may tap it, may not find the way back, and may hand the tablet to someone and say it is broken. The result is an app that gets deleted, and a family that concludes the parent cannot use a tablet.
Read the price model before installing: one-off purchase, subscription, or free with purchases. A subscription that renews on the adult child's card is fine if everyone knows, and a small disaster if the parent is the one who sees a charge they did not expect. If the app requires an account with a password, write the password somewhere the family can find it, because the resident will not be the one who resets it.
There is also the question nobody asks at purchase: what happens when the app stops being maintained. A game that needs a current operating system version will stop working on the tablet the day the tablet stops updating, and the money spent on a lifetime licence buys a lifetime of the app's life, not the resident's.
What the app collects, and who can agree to it
A games app can collect a surprising amount: an account, a date of birth, a photograph, a voice recording, a score history, and device identifiers. Under the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (Cap. 486) the app's operator is the data user for what it holds, and the person entering the details is usually the adult child rather than the resident. That is a practical problem as well as a legal one, because the person whose data it is may not know it exists.
Two questions are worth asking of any app before it goes on the tablet. Can it be used without an account, or with one that holds no real name? And can the data be exported or deleted on request? An app that answers both well is one that treats an older adult as a customer rather than as a data source.
Where the resident's capacity to consent is in question, the family should not decide alone. The safest course is to use the app in a way that collects as little as possible — no account, no photograph, no voice — and to keep any record the family wants in their own notes rather than in the app's cloud. The same instinct applies to the record a caregiver keeps, which is why what a caregiver app should record starts from the minimum rather than the maximum.
The device in the flat decides more than the app
The tablet matters as much as the software, and it is usually the part nobody budgets for. Three things break a good app: an operating system too old to install it, storage too full to update it, and a Wi-Fi signal that reaches the living room but not the bedroom where the person actually sits.
Check the version before buying anything, and check it again in a year. Android tablets and iPads both stop receiving updates after a few years, and an app that requires a newer version than the tablet can take will simply refuse to install. A mid-range tablet bought for this purpose is a better purchase than a premium one bought five years ago.
Then decide where the tablet lives. A stand on the table the person already uses beats a drawer, and a charging cable routed to where the tablet sits beats one that has to be found. The single most common failure we hear described is not a bad game: it is a tablet that was set up once, ran out of battery, and was never picked up again.
A two-week trial that settles the question
Install one app, not four. Set it up with the person present, play the first round together, and then leave it alone for two weeks. Note three things at the end: how many days out of fourteen it was opened, whether it was opened without being suggested, and whether the person said anything about it. Four or more unprompted sessions is a yes. One, or none, is a no, and the honest conclusion is that this app is not the one — not that the person cannot use a tablet.
During the trial, resist the urge to teach. An app that needs a lesson every time is an app with a design problem, and the resident will not ask for the lesson when nobody is there. If a family member has to sit beside the person for the game to work, the game is a shared activity rather than a solo one, which is a perfectly good thing to be — as long as it is what was bought.
Sanospark is the games line SilverGuard is building for this exact use, and its games are in demo development rather than on sale. We are writing the checklist above as the standard we would have to meet on the Sanospark site before claiming a game is ready for a resident's tablet, and a demo is how a family can find out whether it is.
Frequently asked questions
- How big should the buttons be in a games app for older adults?
- At least 24 by 24 CSS pixels, which is the WCAG 2.2 minimum for pointer targets, and comfortably more than that in practice. A 24-pixel target is a compliance floor, not a comfortable size for a person with a tremor. Look for targets of 44 pixels or more, generous spacing, and a layout that does not put two controls close together.
- Is a free games app with ads good enough?
- Usually not, and the reason is not taste. An advertisement is an unexpected screen change with a call to action, and a person with cognitive impairment may tap it and lose the way back. The predictable outcome is a deleted app and a family that concludes the tablet was too difficult. A one-off purchase is usually the cheaper decision.
- Does the app need an internet connection?
- Some do and some do not, and it matters more than the listing suggests. If the resident's room has weak Wi-Fi, an app that needs a connection will fail at the moment it is used. Ask specifically whether a downloaded game can be played offline, and test it with the Wi-Fi switched off before relying on it.
- How do I know whether the app is helping?
- By whether it is used. A game opened on four or more days out of fourteen, at least sometimes without being suggested, is doing something for that person. A score that rises while the app is opened once a week is measuring practice at the game, not a change in the day.
Explore more
- What makes a cognitive training game work : the design side of the same purchase.
- Loneliness in care homes and what activities are for : why the session matters more than the score.
- What a caregiver app should record : the same minimum-data instinct, applied to a care record.
- the SilverGuard product family : where the games line sits, and what stage it is at.
- SilverGuard Insights : our other notes for families and operators.
- Sanospark : the cognitive games line, in demo development.
- Easikin : for the family who is keeping the record.
- Legaris : for the documents that go with a parent's affairs.
The product behind this note
Cognitive training through play
Ten-minute cognitive game sessions a care worker can run on a tablet — cognitive training games with a session record. In demo development.
Hong Kong aged-care tech watch
When a subsidy, a policy or a care-home rule changes, you get one clear note.
We read the HK policy papers, subsidy circulars and care-home notices, then send one short note when something actually changes: what changed, who it affects, and what to do next. No fixed schedule — if nothing moves, you hear nothing.
Related notes
- Brain Training Games: What Makes One Work
Brain training games are judged on the domain they target, how difficulty moves, the evidence, and whether a 30-minute session can run twice a week.
- Caregiver App: What to Log for Elderly Parents
A caregiver app earns its place by recording six things: medication, meals, mood, falls, appointments and supplies. What to log, and who types it.