Take me home : designing, implementing and evaluating wayfinding prototypes for people with dementia

Abstract

With increasing life expectancy, the number of people with cognitive disabilities like dementia is increasing. While technological aids exist to aid them at home (e.g. assisted ambient living) or at nursing homes, research has shown that physical activity is beneficial to slowing the progress of memory decline. When leaving their home, people with dementia are at risk to forget where they live and therefore become lost. As most people use or at least carry smartphones that utilize global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) for location services, it seems logical to leverage the technology. While mapping and navigation apps such as Google Maps are helpful for a majority of people in this context, people with cognitive limitations may find them too hard to use as the respective user interface contains a large amount of elements and possible options. This thesis explores a new way of guiding individuals home by designing, implementing and evaluating two prototypes. The prototypes were initially inspired by an analog compass, or more specifically, the analogy of a needle pointing towards a predefined destination (i.e. north). However, unlike a traditional compass, the prototypes developed point towards the homes of users. The thesis first provides a brief summary on dementia before moving on to an overview of the technology behind global navigation satellite systems. The ideation process for both prototypes is covered in detail while providing an overview of the design process that led to the final versions of the prototypes. As the focus group includes people with cognitive limitations, requirements for the prototypes taking the needs of this specific group into account had to be determined first by forms of a literature study before starting with the design process. The first prototype developed is an iOS app while the second prototype is a physical device that is meant to be used in conjunction with the app. The informal evaluation suggests that the concept developed over the course of this thesis has the potential of successfully guiding individuals home as it has been positively received.