Intergenerational User Study with a Wildfire Resilience Game

Research

The objective for this research project was to study the intergenerational co-play experience of the wildfire games when played by a child with their parent or grandparent. This short paper shares our preliminary findings from observing the games played by four families, and it was presented at the Last-Mile of Climate Resilience workshop at CHI 2026. 

Abstract

Wildfire risks and evacuations pose a serious threat to communities, and can be particularly challenging for families with children. In this study, we examine the use of a collection of minigames about wildfire preparedness to facilitate intergenerational discussion and knowledge-sharing towards the "Last Mile" challenge of wildfire resilience. These games were previously tested with adults and showed promise for increasing knowledge and encouraging behavior change. We hypothesized that the games could serve a useful purpose helping families discuss wildfire preparedness strategies, creating a valuable opportunity for collaboration across generations and leading to increased comfort with discussing this topic. To evaluate the minigame collection for this purpose, we conducted an intergenerational user study (N=8) to measure the interaction between children and their parents while playing the game.

Citation

MJ Johns, Tristyn Lai, Kieren Emens, Ella-Blue Wilmot, Sonia Murugesh, Jennie Le, Christopher Hernandez-Morales, Edward Melcer, and Katherine Isbister. 2026. Intergenerational User Study with a Wildfire Resilience Game. In Proceedings of the Last-Mile Workshop (CHI ’26). ACM, New York, NY, USA. https://ucsc-wildfire-games.itch.io/intergenerational-user-study