Mapping memories for people with dementia

Abstract

Due to the demographic change and the world’s ageing populations the number of people with dementia will rise dramatically in the coming years. Dementia impacts all areas of daily life and, in particular, memory and communication. Although technology provides promising means to address these challenges, few technologies have been successfully developed that empower the people with dementia instead of simply leaving them in a passive position. We aim specifically to design interactive systems that can be used by people with dementia, e.g., as part of reminiscence therapy to remember the past and communicate with others. In this paper, we present our research and design approach and exemplify the design case of the interactive Reminiscence Map. This is a tangble interface developed in collaboration with a person with early stage dementia. We present results and further developments based on field research and focus groups with care experts.