Design Issues, Research Methods and Design Strategy Courses at The University of Cincinnati, Design, Art, Architecture and Planning (DAAP), 2019. Primary and Secondary Research, Data Visualization InDesign and Figma
Nichole Chaney, Tianran Chen, Akshat Srivastava, D.J. Trischler
Starting the Conversation
and Making Dementia Accessible
The challenge:
Discovery- Choose a UN sustainable development goal and/or a World Economic Forum Strategic Initiative.
Significance and the Problem- Research the problem using primary and secondary research in order to understand global issues, gain insights and find pain points.
Use design methods to find emergent themes and solutions.
Give an outline of design opportunities.
Develop a prototype to pitch as a possible solution.
Give insights and results of the project.
Discovery
UN Sustainable Development Goal, No. 3
World Economic Form Strategic Initiative. Starting with Ageing down to Inclusive Design.
Significance
For the first time in human history, more people are living over the age of 65 than children under the age of 5.
Current and Projected Global Population of 60+
Longer life expectancies and the aging baby boomers will lead to an increase in the number of Americans who will be 85 and older, the oldest-old. Between 2012 and 2050, the oldest-old are expected to increase— from 14% in 2012 to 22% in 2050. This results in an additional 12 million oldest-old people — individuals at the highest risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease.
Azheimer’s Association. 2019 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures. Alzheimers Dement 2019;15(3):321-87.
Problem
Global and National Dementia Cases
Our team gathered over 100 sources and conducted 8 interviews with Dementia experts such as: Care Partner, Social Workers, Social Worker, Medical Experts and Care Managers.
How are Dementia and Alzheimer’s Different?
Dementia is the umbrella term commonly used to refer to the symptoms caused by a wide variety of medical issues related to cognitive impairment, such as Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal disorders, and Lewy Body dementia, among others.
Alzheimer’s is a degenerative brain disease that is caused by complex brain changes following cell damage. It leads to symptoms of dementia that gradually worsen over time. Alzheimer's is the most common cause of dementia that accounts for 60% to 80% of dementia cases.
Through primary and secondary research, we discovered the primary pain points for PwD and their caregivers
Awareness and empathy for people with dementia (PwD) appear to be severely lacking among designers, leading to a scarcity of digital products and services accessible to and helpful for PwD and their care partners.
Method
The researchers sought to find out why designers were not designing for PwD, so we asked their opinions through an online survey. The survey, which received 55 responses, assessed if designers in the researchers’ networks are designing for PwD and why or why not.
Survey Insights
The researchers hypothesized that knowing someone with dementia influences whether or not a designer considers PwD in their process. The survey proved this theory wrong. The following diagram summarizes on the key findings from the survey that pertain to motivating factors for designers to consider PwD in their process.
Approximately 71% of designers said they would consider PwD in their design process if a client had interest or requirement in terms of accessibility. Therefore, the researchers felt a strong inclination to focus their efforts in creating awareness and starting the conversation with CXO’s and business minded people.
Primary design opportunities for PwD and their caregivers
The researchers found that depending on the task or the stage of dementia the PwD is in, there are many technologies, such as (but not limited to) AI, VR, AR, biometrics, etc., that can be instrumental in assisting PwD and their care partners with their daily lives. These are currently not being leveraged to any significant degree.
Concept sorting to find emergent themes
After wrapping up the first phase of the project, the researchers went through a series of concept sorting exercises where they observed patterns in their findings and started sorting them into overarching themes and opportunity areas.
The researchers narrowed down the themes even further– from five design opportunities to one solution.
The Prototype: The Game
There’s a plethora of opportunities to innovate or invent products that serve people with dementia. Having identified this gap, the researchers built a game that could help start conversations around this problem, create awareness and facilitate designers, developers, entrepreneurs and other disciplines to design and innovate for PwD.
Participatory design sessions were then conducted with three groups of three–four designers each (11 participants overall) to evaluate the efficacy of this generator as an innovation facilitation tool.
Screen-based prototype : Let’s Talk about Dementia!
After the Game
90% of the participants indicated they would find more information on dementia extremely valuable.
54% were more familiar and excited to design for people with dementia after the workshop.
Results
Lack of Knowledge May Lead to Fear of Designing for People with Dementia
Designers, developers, and entrepreneurs are often known and encouraged to step into unknown territories, but limited knowledge about the issue can instill a sense of fear and overwhelmedness in them
Games like the one the researchers used in the pilot workshop can help lighten the weight of a heavy topic like dementia. It then becomes less about coming up with the right answer or solution and more about breaching a difficult topic. While that may not lead to immediate solutions, at the very least, the conversation can be a starting point of future invention or innovation processes.