Professional Documents
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Hci Report Group3
Hci Report Group3
improve the
communication with
dementia people living
at home alone?
Understand
Envision
Improve the
Communication
for People with
Dementia
Design
Erik
Discussion and
Recommendations
Mike
About one-third of
people with dementia live at
home. With the right support it is
possible for them to have an
independent life. Usually they want to
stay in their own home as long as
possible. A good quality care at
home can reduce hospital care
admissions.
Phase 1
Understanding
What is
Dementia?
Research
Dementia describes a pattern of symptoms that occur when the
brain is damaged. It typically involves the loss of memory, mood
changes, problems with orientation, comprehension, language and
judgement.
Dementia is progressive - symptoms tend to develop slowly but
steadily over several years. There are over 100 different diseases
or conditions which can lead to dementia. The most common one is
the Alzheimer's disease.
What are
exiting
Solutions?
Evaluation
Why?
Semi-structured
Interviews
Problems
Dementia
Eating
Forgetting appointments
Orientation
Taking Medicine
Emotion problems like
aggressive behavior
Getting lost
Asking the same question
several times
Falling (orientation)
Finding things again
Keeping clothes clean
Hygiene and cleaning
Paper work and bills
Transportation
Some dont want help
Existing
Solutions
Other
Individualized solution is
needed
Mild form of dementia in focus
Privacy, ethical and legal
issues
Medical aids are expensive
and complicated
2
Context
Technology
Phase 2
Envisionment
Requirements
MoSCoW
Gunn Jonsson
72 years
Lives in a small house in Stabby, Uppsala
Gunn gets up every day at 7am and prepares
breakfast. After that she goes to the bathroom to take
a shower and to brush her teeth. She regularly visits her
best friend Kersti and her doctor. Her family is visiting her
at least once a week. She cleans her house and does most
of the shopping herself. In the evening she watches TV and goes
to
bed around 10pm. Gun has a stationary phone in her living room that she uses
regularly. She is not used to smartphones or any other new technology.
Gunn has recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer. She regularly forgets about
appointments. Sometimes she loses her sense of orientation for places and of what
day and time of day it is. She often feels lonely at home and tries to call her family as
often as possible.
Frederik Jonsson
48 years
Lives in Stockholm with his family
Gunns son
He works full time as a bank manager and has to travel a
lot. His wife Annika works full time as a teacher. Their
daughter Anna (20) goes to university in Malm. Their son
Andre (17) goes to school in Stockholm. They all have
smartphones. Frederik worries about Gunn living by herself in her small house in
Uppsala.
4
Scenario 1
StatusGuard
Gunns
normal day
Gunn
has a
problem
Gunn wakes up at
7am and has
breakfast in the
kitchen. In the
evening she watches
TV.
There is no activity
in the morning. The
system tries to call
Gunn. She doesnt
react. Frederik gets
a message.
The language
used for the
colors should
help to instantly
identify the
persons status.
Green indicates that the
system is receiving information about
activities that match the daily habits.
Orange indicates that the person's last
activity was a long time ago or that the
person currently cant be tracked. It doesnt
necessarily mean that there is a problem.
Red indicates a higher probability of a
dangerous situation and requires direct
attention.
The system can never assure a 100%
accuracy of the situation which makes the
chosen wording for the
description very important.
In order to keep
the app simple
the design
pattern cards
has been
chosen.
5
HealthCare
HomeCare
CareGuide
My Profile
Gunn Jonssonn
04.08.1943
72 years
Stabby backe 1
752 30 Uppsala
Medical Report
Family Information
GetTogether
Breakfast
Lunch
Lunch
Fika
Dinner
Location:
Stiftelsen Andreas
Monday
Weekdays: 8:30am - 10am
Weekend: 9am -11am
Group Size: 20-50
Special Diets: Possible
Update
Configure
Configure
Configure
Scenario 2
GetTogether
Mockup
A mockup has been chosen as
design representation for the
profile on the Telia healthcare page.
Although the profile is not used by Gunn
herself it should still be simple and only
show the main information. The top part
shows basic background information.
The bottom part contains the
configuration and details about the
individual GetTogethers. This is placed
on a grid that contains all events
together. In order to allow a better
scanning of the page the title are all
placed in the same sections.
The color is mostly based on the existing
Telia icon. For GetTogether the different
colors should indicate which meals are
booked already without loosing too much
contrast.
6
Description
Scenario 3
FrameControl
The third scenario has a focus on communicating with people who have dementia through a
digital frame connected to a stationary phone. That display of the frame is remotely controlled
by a mobile application. The goal is to improve the communication between people with
dementia and their family. It makes them to feel closer and reduces stressful movements.
Concept
Storyboards
Prototype
Next to Gunns stationary phone Frederik has installed a digital frame that can be
controlled by the FrameControl app on his phone. It can show different kinds of
information depending on the current settings. Notes can be added to help Gunn
remember calls, pictures can be shown and the frame can be used for video calls
within the family. It also shows pictures of the calling person.
Recommendations
StatusGuard
Evaluation
All the concept have to be
evaluated in order to find out if they
are valid and if they can be used in real
life. This could happen with the help of
focus groups and pilot programs (for
example with the GetTogether idea). The
applications need to be tested by users
and a heuristic evaluation can be used
to get feedback on the usability and
the user experience of each
idea.
One part that has not been covered is the configuration of the settings area. How can the
communication of the app be customized to the individual needs of a user? A second idea is to
record messages for the test calls. The next step would be to see the status of multiple people
within the app. This could add hospitals or nursing homes as potential target users. By using the
design pattern cards we have already created the foundation for that idea. StatusGuard should
also provide add ons for the integration of further technologies such as surveillance systems,
electrical door locks, GPS sensors and so on.
Especially with the mentioned recommendations this concept would not only be interesting for
people with dementia but also for other groups of people who want to live an independent life
but need some kind of supervision from caregivers and families.
GetTogether
In order to test if the concept of bringing people together for meals is working it is important to start
with a smaller version (e.g. only small groups for lunch). If the concept is working and accepted by
older people it can be extended. One idea is to allow a further connection amongst (older) people
especially for those ones who are more used technology. It can also be extended from just meeting for
meals
to meeting for other social activities such as playing games together or going to the theater. The idea of
connecting people is not only interesting for patients with dementia but also for others who don't want to eat alone or feel lonely.
FrameControl
One possible extension for the concept with the digital frame can be a reminder functionality that uses sound or voice output. The FrameControl
could be useful to connect with other ideas and applications for example the GetTogether concept as mentioned in our video - other people such
as caregivers could also get the right to add notes or picture to the frame. This opens the discussion about who is controlling and monitoring the
shown content.
Discussion
Limiting the design space for this research question was very difficult. During brainstorming we came up with
many valuable ideas that we had to leave out due to the given frame of our project. Interviews and research
helped a lot to understand the topic and to come up with solutions. We focused on ideas that are easy to
integrate into the daily life and are not too expensive. Creating scenarios, wireframes and prototypes
worked well for the project. Fully following the user centered design process would require more user
interaction what would also help to better evaluate the concepts directly from the beginning. Feedback from
current caregivers or researchers would have been a very valuable asset to the feedback we received
from people who have experience with dementia patients.
In the following we want to reflect the strong and weak sides of each of our scenarios.
Status Guard
We started with the idea of using sensors in the home. Especially the idea of a carpet measuring the weight, door
sensors, electrical monitoring and sensors attached to clothes seemed promising to us. With StatusGuard we limited the
focus to the monitoring of electric activity. The main constraint we faced by choosing a technology like Watty was that the systems accuracy is
a factor that is hard to measure. There are many variables that we cant predict and that will only appear once the system is in (test-)use. The
biggest advantage of this solution is that it does not require any input from the person with dementia. It learns habits and keeps family and
caregivers informed without bothering the patient. Even if the system is extended with further sensors it will still not require constant data input.
GetTogether
We wanted to see Gunn as a human being with social needs rather then as a patient locked in at home. Connection people for meals could not
only help them feel less lonely but also solves eating difficulties. The success of the idea relies on the acceptance of the people. It needs the be
researched if sitting together with unknown people is medically advisable or if it is too distracting and perhaps even stressful.
FrameControl
The main idea for this concept is not to change the usual way of calling. CommunicationFrame will serve as an additional feature to a stationary
phone and doesnt require any direct interaction from the person with dementia. We thought about applying the design pattern card to the frame
in order to offer the possibility to add multiple notes or to show a calendar with time and weather. But an evaluation has to be done first in order
to find out if it makes sense or if it is confusing for the person. In our approach we focused on the main elements without any distraction.
Method Appendix
Understand
Envision
Design
Planning
Brainstorming
Design
Iterations
Appendix - StatusGuard
Appendix - GetTogether
2
Another idea was to create some kind of history for the
GetTogether events in order to have another source of
information about Gunns status for the family.
Appendix - FrameControl