Iterative Design of a User Interface Adapted for People with Dementia

Abstract: In today society people live longer and along with the rising life expectancy chronic diseases, like dementia, will become more common. The demand on more and better assistive technology, technology that ease the everyday life for the persons with dementia, will increase. The assistive technology currently recommended by occupational therapists are mainly low-technological solutions. There exists a few applications for technological devices, like smart phones or tablets, however most of them are not adapted to people with dementia. The goal for this master thesis was to explore which aspects need to be considered when designing a graphical user interface for persons with dementia. Then apply this knowledge when designing a prototype of a graphical user interface, divided into three stages with decreasing difficulty level, for an iPad application for the company FamilyLink. A literature study was conducted to find the difficulties the persons with dementia might have when interacting with an interface. This was summarized in a checklist together with the results from interviews with professionals within the area of dementia. Then a user centered design approach was used to create the prototype designs in four iterations. The prototype was evaluated with the checklist and the prototype of stage one was tested in every iteration. From the feedback given the prototype in stage one has potential, but needs to be tested more extensively. The later stages have been discussed with professionals within the field of dementia but needs to be tested properly.