Reminiscence Map - Insights to Design for People with Dementia from a Tangible Prototype

With higher life expectancy and an increasing number of older people, the number of people suffering from dementia continues to grow. Dementia impacts all areas of daily life and, in particular, communication with other people and maintenance of personhood. Technology is a promising means to address these challenges, yet approaches to design with and for people with dementia remain sparse. In our work we aim specifically to design interactive systems that can be used by people with dementia, e.g. as part of reminiscence therapy or generally to remember the past and communicate with others. In this paper we present our research and design approach and exemplify one design case: the interactive Reminiscence Map, which was developed together with a person with early stage dementia. We show how this design served us as a lens into the thoughts, and daily life of the care home residents and caregivers and provide design insights.