Getting Closer, Empathising and Understanding: Setting the Stage for a Co-design Project with People with Dementia

Abstract

This paper discusses the initial work of a doctoral research project that explores how communication design can enable people with dementia and their social circle to codesign strategies to communicate. The ethnographic exercise in two care institutions and a consequent design intervention are described, and its process deconstructed: approaching institutions and participants, developing empathy and understanding towards configuring participation, and defining next stages of research. This study draws from approaches related to Design Anthropology and Participatory Design, which are intertwined and mutually influential, reinforcing their importance in developing a design project for and with people.

Keywords

• Communication design
• Dementia care
• Design anthropology
• Participatory design