Dementia Eyes: Co-Design and Evaluation of a Dementia Education Augmented Reality Experience for Medical Workers

Abstract

Dementia describes a syndrome of cognitive degeneration, and Behavioural and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia (BPSD) is the non-cognitive symptom. BPSD can be improved by care services. To aid better care service, we explore the potential of using Augmented Reality (AR) to support dementia education for medical workers in three steps: (1) We explore medical workers' perspective on dementia care lived experience and XR, (2) we co-design an educational experience containing an AR-based application and a 5-min activity with medical workers, (3) we evaluate the effectiveness of the system through a mixed method study. Our result shows that the AR experience successfully touches participants, and motivates them to reflect on the provision of care service. On this basis, we discuss the elements and challenges of designing XR-enabled dementia education for users unfamiliar with novel technology, and the potential of using XR in clinical education.