‘Ageing Playfully’: a story of forgetting and remembering

ABSTRACT

An increasing interest in exploring how digital innovation could support dementia care has been a leading research responding to e-health movements, from caregiving and medical perspectives. Little research has included perspectives of people with dementia; even fewer are concerned with the emotional side of the research experience per se. The aim of this case study is to open a space for a discussion of the impact that this process has on design researchers engaging in the area of dementia. Grounded in these two overlapping creative spaces, a methodology emerged that focused on adding design value to outcomes and to all stakeholders involved along the process. The Ageing Playfully project explored, through a series of playful workshops, the opportunities available for people with dementia to catalyse imagination and social interaction through co-design. Participating in Ageing Playfully were 12 co-designers with dementia, 2 healthcarers and 4 researchers from Lancaster University working in the areas of design, computer science and health studies. This paper recounts the experience of the design researchers as part of the team and constructs a narrative in which emerging methods together with personal experience are protagonists; a story that offers memories within the forgetful corners of the investigation.

KEYWORDS:

• Ageing
• dementia
• co-design
• participatory design, method story
• knowledge exchange
• researcher experience

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all the people with dementia and their carers who took part in the various workshops and events organized by the Ageing Playfully project at Dolphinlee House and the Neuro Drop-In Centre; the Age UK Lancashire (Lancaster office) team and community support staff; and our funders, the Arts and Humanities Research Council Creative Exchange Research Project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Arts and Humanities Research Council, Creative Exchange Research Project.

Notes on contributors

Maria A. Luján Escalante

Maria A. Luján Escalante is a Creative Exchange researcher in the area of Digital Public Space, exploring materiality and in-materiality of physical–digital experiences in making. Maria is especially interested in memory processes and time experience that she is approaching by experimenting with diffractive methodologies.

Emmanuel Tsekleves

Emmanuel Tsekleves is a senior lecturer in design interactions at Imagination@Lancaster in Lancaster University. Emmanuel leads research at the intersection of design, health, well-being and technology at the Imagination@Lancaster research lab. He conducts research in the design of technology-inspired health interventions and services, which are created by end users and are aimed at improving the quality of life and wellbeing of people into old age, including people with chronic health problems.

Amanda Bingley

Amanda Bingley is a lecturer in health research in the Division of Health Research, Faculty of Health and Medicine of Lancaster University. Amanda is involved in work with the Centre for Ageing Research and has an interest in research with older (and younger people) with a focus on health and place. When facilitating research with people of all ages, she works with a range of qualitative approaches including narrative, ethnographic, creative arts and participatory research methods.

Adrian Gradinar

Adrian Gradinar is a Creative Exchange PhD student conducting research in the Internet of Things and how digital information can be integrated with familiar objects. Adrian is also interested in game design theories and how digital games could be interconnected with the physicality of the surrounding world.