I. Discovery
The number of Americans living with Alzheimer's is growing — and growing fast. More than 6 million Americans of all ages have Alzheimer's. An estimated 6.2 million Americans age 65 and older are living with Alzheimer's dementia in 2021.
We want to understand what technology could be the best to improve the way they live and with what technology they will engage better. Design has the potential to improve how older people have access to products. Creating products for seniors with a disease, such as Alzheimer's, could guide us to create an accessible design not only for these users in specific but also to benefit a wider population.
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The focus of the first stage is to narrow down and identify a problem space within the myriad of challenges that those affected with dementia face, that within the timeframe of a semester we can meaningfully contribute to.
We looked at various academic papers and literature which outlines the progressive nature of the disease. We also researched the existing landscape of design intended to help dementia patients, caretakers.
Our target audience was lower-income elderly who don’t live / can’t currently find an affordable nursing home, and whose immediate family member doesn’t live with them 24/7 AND/OR have ability to take care of them 24/7.
Purpose:
How can we collect and preserve the memories of a person who will forget about them over months and years?
III. Device and App Interaction
Remi provides a respite for the caretaker by creating quality downtime for their loved ones.
The actual device-user interaction occurs more often as the disease progresses. In the early-stage, the primary caretaker will enter in gaps in their loved one’s schedule where the device can play out prompts recorded by family members to engage the user. Using voice recognition will prolong the conversation and encourage more recalling of significant memories for the user.
I also wanted to assure the user at the last step of the terms they've chosen before. I added in a loan summary card to show users their monthly payment, total cost, and loan term.
IV. Wireframes
Remi’s goal is two-fold: 1) establish a routine of engagement between the person living with dementia and the device, providing them the space to enjoy recalling their most treasured memories and 2) provide the primary caretaker with leisure time to attend to their own responsibilities outside of caretaking.
IV. Usability Testing
We created a low fidelity prototype and recruited participant who had previous experience taking care of family members with Alzheimer's disease to understand how they perceived the features of the app.
VI. Design System
The choices around the app’s visuals and messaging revolve around the central principle of putting the celebration of life and memories first, not the explicit symptoms of the disease.
When we first picked the color palettes, we experimented with two color palettes: A) were blue, beige, and yellow dominated the mood boards and another mood board B) where purple, orange, and shades of pale pink and white emerged as the core colors.
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