Reviews on the materiality of design artefacts for People with Dementia (PwD)
This story is a research note written during my PhD, which is associated with the HOMEDEM doctoral network and funded by the EU. Read more stories like this here: HOMEDEM’s Medium.
Research brief:
Communication in the care setting involving people with dementia (PwD) is complicated partially because of the progressive decline in cognitive and social abilities. How can we design products and/or services to support the communication between PwD and their care constellation (informal caregiver of PwD and the dynamic of care relationship)? My research focuses on the evolving relationship in ‘home’ throughout the dementia journey, considering person-centred care principles and engaging in co-design processes with PwD and their care constellation to develop products and services which foster shared decision-making communication.
In the previous articles — The role and relationship transitions of PwD and their care constellation and Autonomy of PwD in decision-making, I studied the ‘actors’ and ‘actions’ of dementia homecare, emphasising the communication. In this article, I will review 5 relevant examples of design artefacts and projects for PwD, analysing the concept, functions, and materiality. In each example, I will also describe its material ‘actors’ and ‘actions‘ ¹ to discuss:
How does the design create interactions that Positive Person Work ² and Branco et al. (2020) described?
And
What role can design artefacts/products play in mediating decision-making conversations and recognising PwD’s autonomy at home?
Brand Boxes — Museum of Brands
Brand Boxes contain replica packaging and products from the 20th century. It provides multi-sensory resources, such as objects, sounds, and smells, to trigger reactions. PwD will be able to reminisce over heritage brands that have been brought to life. Brand Boxes recreate memories, encourage creative discussions and art activities, and support bonding between PwD and their caregivers.
The boxes catch the elements that are meaningful for PwD. It creates a reminisce loop that PwD could repeatedly have and stimulate discussion with their caregiver and family. As a result, the boxes enhance the human interaction.
My House of Memories— National Museums Liverpool
My House of Memories app is designed for and with PwD and their carers. PwD ‘curates’ objects from the past into a digital memory tree, memory box, or timeline by adding a museum collection or personal pictures. This app facilitates engagement, allowing PwD and their caregiver to learn about each item’s history and significance.
The app is like a memory bank that storage PwD’s personal history, or in a beautiful way, a private museum with memory curation. The app also input voiceover and music to create accessible and immersive experince for PwD.
Tessa — Tinybots BV
Tessa is a care assistant and buddy who speaks in her voice with endless patience. Tessa is a tool without judgment located at home. The ‘Tessa’ network keeps care accessible and possible for remote. Within this network, the care is self-relied and self-managed. Eventually, it increases the quality of PwD’s life. (users’ testimony of Tessa: in Dutch)
This technology aims to reduce the caregiver’s care load demanded from PwD. Yet, not cloning a caregiver but inserting a hub where PwD and their caregiver exchange information about their instant feeling and experiences. I noticed that Tessa created a buffer zone instead of just a control centre for caregivers like most healthcare smart devices.
Magic Moments — Magic Me
Magic Moment is a programme and workshop set that supports PwD in expressing creatively through sensory-based activities. Caregivers can adopt the Magic Moment pack or generate new ideas to conduct art experimentation with PwD. These experimentations are flexible and extensible and support everyone’s right to creative expression.
The workshop emphasises in-moment joy and process rather than the result. The materials used in Magic Moment, such as inks, light, cellophane, and natural materials, are the triggers and stimuli for story-telling. They also change the collaborative interaction between PwD and their caregiver by creating art together.
Beauty Workshop — Beautiful You UK
The Beauty Workshop is a beauty treatment workshop hosted in the care home sector. The professional makeup artist would gently massage, skincare, and apply makeup for the female residents. The workshop takes the ladies on a relaxing journey where they experience transformation. According to the assistant from the care home, many of their ladies felt detached from their old lives, but the Beauty Workshop sessions give them a lift and boost to regain that joy and confidence.
The workshop is about respectful human interaction. Although the artefacts are not obviously pushed interaction, cosmetic products can still be viewed as actors because it is acknowledged that they were used in PwD’s life before. The makeup artist helps bring vividly those memories attached to the cosmetic products.
Conclusion
Throughout all the examples above, some focus on enabling reminiscence to create recognition and celebration, while some generate facilitation and negotiation for quality care. Negotiation and timelation are achieved by making PwD feel control and joy. From the design perspective, using known-from-the-past and personal or personalised references effectively creates meaningful interactions. Furthermore, the network activated by the artefacts supports and enhances the bond between PwD and their caregiver.
In my research — on mediating decision-making, I believe mapping out the actors and actions in the current state would help identify the weak but crucial interaction(s) for design intervention(s). For example, in the case of Tessa, it filled the absence of remote informal care. Tessa's actions respond to the needs of PwD and their caregiver, activating a network that holds and validates remote informal care.
Design allows artefacts to enter PwD’s life by carefully considering and balancing the usability, aesthetic, and material aspects. Especially aiming for mediation and autonomy, design artefacts have to have both in-moment and long-term impact because they require constant influence to improve from the current state. The examples show that the design form is diverse — box, app, smart technology, and workshop set. It gives us insights into the diversity of applications and the optimisation of creating meaningful interactions.
¹ Actor-Network Theory (ANT): An actor or actant ‘acts.’ It is considered any entity that does things. In this article, artefacts designed by humans are considered ‘non-human actors’ in the ANT framework. Non-human actors are considered mediators, and design is viewed as a connector.
² Positive Person Work (PPW): Kitwood (1997) describes PPW behaviours as positive interactions that promote dignity, respect and the person's uniqueness, thus contributing to more positive experiences for PwD. These interactions include Celebration, Creation, Facilitation, Holding, Negotiation, Play, Recognition, Relaxation, Timelation, and Validation.
Branco, R.M., Quental, J. and Ribeiro, Ó. (2020) ‘Materializing Personhood: Design-Led Perspectives’, in R. Brankaert and G. Kenning (eds) HCI and Design in the Context of Dementia. Cham: Springer International Publishing (Human–Computer Interaction Series), pp. 111–129. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32835-1_8.
Hobson, P. (2019) ‘Positive Person Work (PPW): Behaviours That Promote Dignity’, in P. Hobson (ed.) Enabling People with Dementia: Understanding and Implementing Person-Centred Care. Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 11–14. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20479-2_3.
About the author:
Rising Lai is a PhD researcher at LUCA School of Arts / KU Leuven in Belgium, working under the cluster Caring. And Design research and associate with the HOMEDEM doctoral network.
📧 rising.lai@kuleuven.be / rising.lai@luca-arts.be
🟦 LinkedIn
