Designing for playfulness through compassion: design for advanced dementia

Abstract

Those who have the greatest need for excellent design are often the most vulnerable in society. These people may find it difficult or impossible to articulate their design requirements due to physical, sensory or memory impairment as a result of accident or disease. Finding ways to understand the challenges they face moment-by-moment and day-by-day is vital. Empathic and compassionate approaches that place an individual central to the design process can inform outcomes that significantly benefit the user as well as those that care for them.

This paper presents research that aims to support the wellbeing of people living with advanced dementia by designing to promote pleasure and positive emotion. The LAUGH project is a recently completed international three-year UK AHRC funded design research project. Outputs from the study include a collection of playful objects, designed to provide comfort, pleasure and fun. This paper describes the research process underpinning the development of the designs and the Compassionate Design methodology that has informed the work.

The design narratives behind the playful objects will be explained in relation to the three key themes of Compassionate Design, which stress the importance of personalization, sensory stimulation and maintaining connections between people and the world.

Keywords:

• Dementia
• design
• qualitative research methods
• compassion

Acknowledgements

Our thanks to staff and residents of project partners, Pobl Gwalia Care and Support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by Arts and Humanities Research Council (Ref AH/M005607/1).

Notes on contributors

Cathy Treadaway

Cathy Treadaway is a Professor of Creative Practice and one of the founding members of the CARIAD Research Centre. She is currently an Academic Lead Investigator on LAUGH EMPOWERED, a Welsh Government funded design research project that is developing playful objects for people living with advanced dementia and post stroke cognitive impairment.

Jac Fennell

Jac Fennell is a Research Fellow and Associate Lecturer at Cardiff Metropolitan University. She is a Design Researcher on the LAUGH EMPOWERED research project. She has a background sin product and interaction design.

Aidan Taylor

Aidan Taylor is a Research Assistant on the LAUGH EMPOWERED research project. He is a maker with specialism in embedded design and electronics with an emphasis on sound, connectivity and physical computing.

Gail Kenning

Gail Kenning is a Senior Researcher at University of Technology Sydney and Honorary Reader at CARIAD. Her research explores creativity and creative engagement in relation to ageing and dementia was co-investigator international on the LAUGH project and chief investigator on the Liveable Communities project, Sydney, Australia.